


Let's not fall in love again.

by GinevraJ



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, Hint of meanie, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, but basically jicheol, ex boyfriends, ex boyfriends have to pretend to be together again, hint of jihan, hint of seoksoon, lol u know how that's gonna end up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-15
Updated: 2019-11-20
Packaged: 2020-01-13 18:39:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 33,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18474787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GinevraJ/pseuds/GinevraJ
Summary: Jihoon has been working his ass off to get the job of his dreams, but the first thing they ask in the interview is if he has an established relationship, which he doesn't. Soonyoung has to help him find a way to fool everyone into thinking he has a longterm relationship, which ends up in a few calls to his ex-boyfriends.





	1. Chapter 1

“Jihoon!” Soonyoung called for him with a wide smile, Jihoon smiled too when he saw him and offered his hand for a shake but Soonyoung pulled him into a hug “Nervous?”

“Yes.” he answered with a smile, anyone could notice that he was very nervous. 

“Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll give the promotion.” 

“Hopefully.” Jihoon whispered. 

“What does Mingyu think about this? Is he happy?” Soonyoung asked when they got into the elevator. 

“I don’t know and I don’t care.” Jihoon answered with a shrug. 

“What? Why?”

“I broke up with him like two weeks ago. Didn’t I tell you?”

“No!” Soonyoung exclaimed, he suddenly seemed worried, which confused Jihoon. 

“What’s wrong with you? I’m fine, don’t worry, I was the one who dumped him.” 

“Why did you do that?!” 

“Soonyoung! What’s wrong?”

“No, no, no. This is not okay.”

“Why? What’s wrong?” Jihoon frowned and looked at him confused. 

“They’re not going to give you the promotion.”

“What?!”

“They’re looking for a very specific profile.” 

“And you’re telling me that if I don’t have a boyfriend I won’t have the job?”

“Exactly.”

“What the fuck Soonyoung?!”

“I didn’t want to tell you, sorry. But apparently they talked with some of the big shots about the applicants for the promotion and everyone liked that one of them was homosexual and in an established relationship. You know how everyone thinks that gay people do it just for the sex and all that bullshit, that’s not good to the company’s image. The fact that you’re in an established relationship has secured you the promotion. Also, it’s different and new, it states that we support minorities. 

Jihoon gaped at him and stood quiet for a moment. 

“What do I do?” he asked running a hand through his hair and getting more anxious. 

“Lie, if they ask just tell them you’re still in a relationship, we’ll figure out what to do.” Soonyoung answered quickly when the elevator doors opened. 

Jihoon sighed loudly and decided to enter the meeting room to do the interview the best he could.

* * *

 

“Trial period?!” Jihoon exclaimed after he got out of the interview “When have you seen that in this company?! And they didn’t even say how long it would be!”

“You got nervous when they asked you about your boyfriend, it’s normal that they have doubts.”

“Unbelievable. I’ve been saying my whole life that I don’t need anyone to get what I want and apparently I need a boyfriend to get my dream job.” both of them walked calmly to the cafeteria of the company while they talked. 

“Don’t worry Jihoon, they don’t know we’re that close.” the other said with a smile, Soonyoung was the CEO’s assistant and he was Jihoon’s best friend “I’ll help you fool them.” 

“How do we lie to them? Do I have to get a new boyfriend? Because I’m not coming back with Mingyu.” 

“No, you can’t get a new boyfriend.” Soonyoung started to explain when he grabbed both of their coffees “You said that you had been with him for a while, they will look for proof, you know how picky they are in the company.”  

“And what am I supposed to do? Go back to Mingyu? I said some stuff… I don’t he’ll want to see me again.” 

“Well, it doesn’t have to be Mingyu. You’ve had other boyfriends, right?”  

“Yeah, but there’s a reason that I broke up with them. I don’t plan on seeing any of them any time soon.” 

“Jihoon, you have to try, you don’t have many options.”

“They’re not going to accept, the hate is mutual.”

“You don’t have to go back to being boyfriends. You just have to make an agreement, you’ll live together until your trial period is over, he’ll have to attend some events and lie a little. You don’t even have to share a room, anyone would do that for money.”

“I don’t know Soonyoung, I don’t even keep contact with any of them.” Jihoon sighed and placed his cheek on the palm of his hand. 

“Do you even know me? Just give me their names I’ll have them on the phone on record time. Here.” he pulled out a pen from his pocket and took a napkin “Write them.”

“All of them?”

“Yes, since the first one, it’ll be okay if we just have a picture and your parents can confirm it.”

“Alright, let me think about it…” Jihoon tapped the pen a couple of times against his temple “My first boyfriend… Oh yeah, I remember, his name was Minhyuk, it was in middle school.” he explained while writing down the name. 

“Middle school? Since when have you known that you like boys?”

“A while, everyone knew. I got picked on a lot because of that, I always had a boyfriend so that wouldn’t happen.” 

“Okay, middle school, what about high school?”

“T the beginning of high school I went out with this kid… Kihyun, we didn’t last that long, he cheated on me.” he mumbled while writing the name on the napkin “What else… Oh right, I dated a jock on senior year… Lee… Seokmin! Yeah, Lee Seokmin, he was really handsome.”

“Let me guess, you broke up with him because he cheated on you with a girl.” Soonyoung guessed with a smile. 

“No, we actually broke up because I was going to college and we wouldn’t be able to see each other.”

“An he was a jock…?”

“Yeah, he was really sweet with me.” Jihoon answered with a smile “Give him priority, that’s the only relationship I had that didn’t end up on bad terms.” 

“Ok, who else?”

“I had a boyfriend the summer before college started, but he got married last year. Let me think….” he did a pause and scrunched his nose “I started college and I dated… Jun! Yeah, it didn’t work out, he liked one of my friends, the sex was good tho.” 

“TMI, next.” 

“That summer I met this guy…. Uhmmm…. Yoongi, right. We broke up when class started because we would always get mistaken by brothers, and the asshole was in love with his best friend.” he explained while he wrote the name in the napkin. 

“They mistook you by brothers?” Soonyoung laughed. 

“Yes, we looked alike, actually it was the reason he started to flirt with me.”

“Okay, anyone else?”

“Yeah, I used to date this one guy during my second year. His name was Chanyeol.” Jihoon mumbled writing the name. 

“Great, we have a lot of options.” 

“Well that’s it, that’s the last one. I broke up with him when we started the third year and years later I met Mingyu and we’ve been together for two years, So those are all of the options that we have.”

“Alright, perfect, I’ll start calling them when my rest is over. I’ll go to your house later to talk about it. It would be great if we had a name in the next few days. They’ll start digging as soon as possible.”

“It seems fine, perfect. Thank you Soonyoung, I owe you one.”

“You owe me your life my friend.” he answered with a smile.”

* * *

 

They didn’t start well, the first one, Minhyuk, was married to a woman, he almost hung up on Soonyoung when he heard ‘Jihoon’, apparently he didn’t want his wife to know about his “homosexual past”. Soonyoung laughed at him, he couldn’t help it. 

The next one, Kihyun, was in a happy relationship with his boyfriend and he didn’t want to have anything to do with Jihoon. Which seemed a little rude since Jihoon told him that he cheated on him. 

Seokmin was… Hard to find, and when he finally had the phone number he didn’t pick up, so he decided to call him later. Wen Junhui lived in China with his boyfriend and wasn’t too interested in coming back to Korea, but he asked about Jihoon and how he was doing after all this time. 

He had time to call Yoongi before finally ending his shift, after doing all the work the CEO asked him to. Jihoon would usually finish earlier than him so he decided to go to his house and if he wasn’t there, wait for him. Soonyoung had a key of Jihoon’s apartment just in case, it had been a couple of times that Jihoon had to stay outside because he forgot his keys. 

When he got there Jihoon was cooking the dinner. 

“How was the search of the ex?” he asked calmly while he kept cooking, Soonyoung sighed, left his jacket in the sofa and he went to the kitchen. 

“Not very well, none of them are available right now. Did you know that Yoongi is now married to that friend you told me?”

“Really? Good for him, give me his number, maybe I can see him again, see how he’s doing.” he said with a smile.

“Okay, all of the others, really, every single one had a thing of their own. Jun asked how you were doing, he’s in China and he has a boyfriend, Minghao.

“Minghao?!” Jihoon looked at him surprised and laughed “That’s the friend he liked, Well, I’m glad it worked out. What about Seokmin?” he asked with a smile. 

“I still haven’t been able to reach him, I have his number but he didn’t pick up, I’ll call him now. I also didn’t have time to call Chanyeol.”

“Alright, I’ll go buy some beer, you call Seokmin, I prefer him.” Soonyoung laughed and saw how he put on his jacket to go out. 

“You really liked him, huh?”

“Yes, he was my first everything, the two others didn’t even appreciate me enough to kiss me. Seokmin really did love me, also, we didn’t end on bad terms. His parents were rich and they loved me, he was basically the perfect guy.” he responded with a smile.

“Alright, I’ll call him first.”

“Thanks, I’ll be back.” 

Soonyoung looked for the phone number when he heard the front door close and called. This time there was an answer. 

“Yes?”

“Yes, hi, is this Seokmin?” Soonyoung asked while sitting on the couch.

“Yes. Who am I talking to?”

“My name is Soonyoung, I’m a colleague of Lee Jihoon.” 

“Jihoon? Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve heard that name.”

“Well right now Jihoon needs a favour, do you have time?”

“Yeah sure, shoot.”

Soonyoung explained everything to him in the easiest way he could, and he emphasized the fact that there would be profits, the other guys seemed more interested when they heard that. He stood quiet for a moment when he finished talking, waiting for an answer.

“Well, that’s a difficult situation.” he answered laughing “Really, I would go back to Jihoon for free, I know how important it is for him and I would love to help him.” Soonyoung could hear the ‘but’ coming “If it was my decision then I would go back to Korea immediately.”

“You’re not in Korea?” Soonyoung asked surprised. 

“No, I took over my dad’s company a while ago and right now I’m on a business trip in New York, it’s scheduled that I go back to Korea in a month.” he explained calmly “But I’m back in a month, if the offer is still standing I would love to be back with Jihoon.”

“Actually is kind of urgent and it can’t wait that long. But I guess you can try it when you’re back, I’m sure this whole mess will be over in a month, I can give you his number.”

“Alright, thank you. I’m glad to hear Jihoon’s doing fine, I would love to see him again.”

“Thank you for your time, bye.”

“No problem, goodbye.” after he said that he hung up the phone. 

He was kind of tired of everyone rejecting the offer, even when the money was offered. 

“No way, I’m not doing that.” Chanyeol answered immediately, the guy had been dating with Jihoon during college and he was the last name on the list. 

“Why not? The payment is good and you just have to live with him for a while it’s not that big of a deal.”

“No, Jihoon is amazing, but only when he’s in a good mood, and that’s hardly ever. I’m not doing it, period.” Soonyoung sighed and started thinking that it would be best that he did it himself to help his friend “Have you asked Seungcheol? He’s the only dummy who would do that for him.”

“Seungcheol? No. Who is he?” he asked confused, he didn’t hear that name before.

“Well, they started dating in the third year if I’m not wrong and they were together until they graduated, I thought they would be together for longer, I didn’t know they broke up, they made a good couple.”

“Do you happen to have the number of this guy?”

* * *

 

Soonyoung heard the front door open and Jihoon get inside the house. 

“Sorry I took too long. All the stores were closing already” he apologized after taking off his jacket “Any good news?” Jihoon asked walking into the living room. 

“Yes, I called Seokmin.”

“And how was it?” he asked with a smile while leaving the beers on the table. 

“Well, he seemed willing about seeing you again.” Jihoon looked at him with a hopeful smile “If he wasn’t on a business trip in New York.” 

“Really?” Jihoon changed his expression completely and the smile was gone. 

“Yes, but he told me he wanted to talk to you again, maybe try things again, so cross your fingers.” Jihoon laughed while he opened a can and sat next to him. 

“Alright. Can you bring the food?” he asked pointing at the kitchen, Soounyoung got up “Anyone else?”

“Yes I called Chanyeol.” he answered from the kitchen.

“Did he say yes?” Jihoon asked hopefully when Soonyoung came back to the living room and sat down beside him. 

“No.” Jihoon changed his expression completely “But he told me about this guy… Seungcheol.”

“Oh no. No, no, no, no. I’m not going back with him.”

“Did you miss any ‘no’s in that sentence? You sound like your exes, it’s not going back, you just have to fake it.”

“Still! I’m never getting closer to  _ him _ ever again, I can’t stand him.”

“Chanyeol told me you made a good couple. What happened for you to be like this?” 

“Yes, it was fine the first two years. We were still in college and the only thing that I had in mind was getting good grades. After we graduated we moved in together and the only thing we did was fight. I don’t want to see him again, I can’t.”

“Well, I already called him.” Soounyoung said and then shrugged. 

“What?! No! Call him again. Tell him there’s no deal!” 

“Jihoon he’s your only chance!”

“NO!”

“Jihoon calm down! You don’t have to be with him, just fake it. Also, I can’t believe you were in a relationship for three years and didn’t tell me anything.”

“I don’t even wanna fake it, I don’t want to see him, I don’t want to have anything to do with him.”

“Well then you’re going to have to swallow your pride because he already said yes. He’s coming tomorrow morning to sign the papers.”


	2. Chapter 2

To see Seungcheol after three years thinking that he would never see him again was like erasing all of that time without him and going back to the same day they broke up. He was mad, he felt that all of the efforts he made to get over him were meaningless. 

The next day Soonyoung had prepared an official contract and he and Jihoon were waiting for him at his house. Everything was going too fast, but he didn’t have any other option. 

When he heard the doorbell ring he felt his heart start to race. Soonyoung got up before him and opened the door. Jihoon stood on his feet for a moment, not turning around to face the entrance of the living room, he could hear them greet each other and he felt goosebumps when he heard that familiar low voice.

Jihoon finally turned around when Seungcheol was entering the living room, he couldn’t even breath. It had been so long and Seungcheol didn’t even change that much. He was still tall and intimidating even though Jihoon knew he actually was incredibly soft. He looked more mature, you could clearly see that it had been a couple of years and he didn’t just get out of college.

“Hi Jihoon.” Seungcheol said with a smile. 

Jihoon sighed and rolled his eyes. 

“Let’s end this quickly.”

Ten minutes later the contract was signed, Seungcheol read it for a while but there wasn’t anything written that he didn’t know, it was pretty clear what they needed. 

“Alright.” Soonyoung spoke when he got up while putting the papers on a folder “I have to go to the office now, Seungcheol you can settle your stuff while Jihoon is at work. I guess he’ll show you where you’re going to sleep. I’ll let you two speak.” he said explained when he was putting on his jacket “I’ll see you later Jihoon, don’t be late to the meeting.”

When they heard the front door close both of them stood in complete silence for a few moments, Jihoon was ignoring Seungcheol’s stare. 

“Listen Jihoon…” Seungcheol started to speak softly “I’m doing this for you.”

“Excuse me?” Jihoon asked surprised, he laughed as if it was a joke “For me? You just want the money, I know you. Do you even work?”

“That was a low blow, yes, I work. It’s been three years I thought you were over it.”

“I am! Of course I’m over it. Was there anything to get over in the first place?”

“Well, you certainly don’t sound like you are, you seem pretty angry with me.”

“I got over our relationship, but I didn’t forgive you for what you did to me” 

“Then don’t…”

“Shut up. Let’s go I’ll show your room.”

Seungcheol followed Jihoon to a door, he had a guest room that he had decided to give to Seungcheol.

“It’s here. I’ll leave you my keys so you can make a copy. I’ll be late so don’t wait up for me.” he explained while he was getting ready to go out. 

“Obviously.” Seungcheol mumbled rolling his eyes.

“Don’t start.” the other warned him with a frown before leaving.

* * *

 

Jihoon opened the front door of his apartment and heard the TV playing in the living room. He took off his shoes and the jacket before heading to the kitchen. He rolled his eyes when he opened the fridge and saw that there was food ready for him. He took the plate out of the fridge and put it in the microwave. Seungcheol was still the same dummy he dated. After turning on the microwave he went to the living room.

“Listen, I get that now you’re…” he started talking but stopped abruptly when he saw that Seungcheol had his head tilted back and his eyes were closed, he was fast asleep. 

Jihoon stepped forward and moved his hand in front of his face to make sure he was asleep, he grabbed the remote control and turned off the TV. He looked at Seungcheol again and approached him slowly, it had been a long time since he saw him sleeping so deeply. Seungcheol didn’t snore, but he breathed loudly and his mouth was open, Jihoon noticed he didn’t change those habits. He jumped when he heard the beeping of the microwave, he wasn’t expecting it so he sighed and put a hand on his chest before walking to the kitchen. He took out his meal and went to his room to eat there, he had the urge to stop in the middle of the living room and look at Seungcheol.

That was the moment where he would usually sit next to him to eat, he would place a blanket on him and probably end up sleeping with him in the couch cuddling because he didn’t want to leave him alone or wake him up, and  he couldn’t take him to bed without waking him up in the process. Jihoon sighed he felt like that wasn’t that long ago even if it was almost three years ago. But they weren’t together anymore, so he ignored the situation and walked to his room. He stopped just when he was about to open the door and he turned around to look at Seungcheol .

“No, I can’t…” he whispered to himself “Should I?” he approached Seungcheol and placed his food on the table. 

He went back to his room and came back with a blanket and a pillow, Jihoon stopped before placing it on top of him.

“No, no, I can’t take care of him, we’re not together anymore.” he mumbled to himself grabbing the blanket against his chest and walking towards his bedroom, he stopped before opening the door “But he’s going to be cold… No, I’ll just forget it.” he tried to walk to his room again and stopped “Didn’t he have back problems? I can’t let him sleep there.” he turned to the sofa and grabbed the pillows in it, he sighed when he realized what he was doing. “No, he’s not my boyfriend, I can’t take care of him anymore.” he talked in a whisper and thought about it for a moment. “I’ll just leave it here, if he wakes up, he can cover himself.” Jihoon placed the blanket next to Seungcheol and then grabbed his meal before going to his bedroom. 

Seungcheol opened his eyes and looked at the closed door of Jihoon’s bedroom, he chuckled lightly and looked at the blanket and the pillow that he left for him. It was nice to know that he still cared a little bit about him. He covered himself with the blanket and laid down on the couch with his head on the pillow. He could go to his room but he just couldn’t help to leave the blanket Jihoon brought him when he was worried.

* * *

 

After getting ready for work Jihoon got out of his room and walked calmly to the kitchen. Seungcheol was still asleep and he wasn’t even surprised, so he simply started to make breakfast.

Later, he heard the front door open and he knew it was Soonyoung, he was supposed to come to arrange some stuff they needed for a meeting.

“Do you want coffee?” 

“No I had breakfast.” Soonyoung answered while looking through the pages they had to review before the meeting. 

At that moment Seungcheol entered the kitchen half asleep, Jihoon tried to avoid his gaze. 

“Good morning.” he mumbled running a hand through his hair. 

“Good morning.” only Soonyoung answered, Jihoon ignored him.

Soonyoung raised his head to look at Seungcheol, the kitchen wasn’t really that big and Jihoon was still making his breakfast, he wanted to see how would Jihoon react when he saw Seungcheol was on his way. 

Seungcheol opened the fridge to grab the carton of milk and Jihoon finished pouring his cup of coffee, the taller one walked behind him and poured milk in his coffee before pouring for himself in a pot so he could warm the milk. 

Jihoon moved one of his hands to take the toasts out of the toaster, there were two, he spread butter on one of them and then marmalade on the other. While Jihoon did that Seungcheol walked behind him and opened one of the cabinets to grab the sugar. He put three spoons on Jihoon’s coffee and then in an empty mug. Jihoon grabbed the pot with milk that Seungcheol had just warmed and poured it in the empty mug calmly at the same time he started eating the toast with butter. When Seungcheol finished he grabbed a bit of the toast with marmalade and then took a sip at the mug Jihoon had just served for him. 

Jihoon finished his coffee quickly and then grabbed the remainings of his toast to turn around, he found Seungcheol right in front of him.

“Well? Let’s go.” he talked quickly, looking at Soonyoung and trying to ignore Seungcheol, even though it looked like he was about to tell him something.

Soonyoung was still quiet, trying to process everything they just did in the kitchen. 

“Oh, yeah sure.”

“You didn’t say anything, I thought you were going to show me the pages of today’s meeting.”

“I…” Soonyoung started speaking, he had been so distracted by Jihoon and Seungcheol that he completely forgot about the meeting.

“Doesn’t matter, we’ll talk in the car.” he spoke quickly, pushing Seungcheol aside to walk to his room “I’m going to get my stuff.”

Soonyoung started packing his things fast, Jihoon was quick to get back there with his briefcase in his hand. He left his phone and his keys on the table so he could put on his jacket and nodded to Soonyoung so they could leave. 

“Don’t you have work?” he asked looking at Seungcheol.

“Yeah, in an hour.” he answered with a smile. 

Jihoon frowned and looked at his watch, it was pretty late, he decided not to ask about and leave because they would probably be late to that meeting. 

“Jihoon.” Seungcheol called for him when he was about to leave. 

Jihoon turned to look at him and Seungcheol simply nodded at the table with a smile on his face, when Jihoon looked he realised he had left his phone and his keys there, after a sigh he grabbed his things and finally left.

Five minutes later he was sitting in his car, Soonyoung was beside him. 

“What was that?” Soonyoung asked suddenly. 

“What was what?”

“That, breakfast.”

“Huh?” Jihoon turned to look at him confused. 

“It looked like… you were coordinated or something.”

“Ah, it’s just habit I guess.” he shrugged. 

“It’s been three years since you don’t see him and you still remember what he takes for breakfast.”

“I don’t know, okay? We’re routine driven people.”

“Well shit, you just had to kiss him when you turned to look at him and then say ‘I’ll see you at dinner’” Soonyoung said in a mocking voice. 

Jihoon sighed and rolled his eyes. 

“No shit, you actually did that when you were together? That’s why you turned to look at him?” Soonyoung started laughing hysterically. 

“Can you fucking read the pages for the meeting?” Soonyoung gave up and took out the papers while still laughing a bit. 

After a long day of work Jihoon really liked getting home and cooking while he listened to music, and then eat while he watched TV. It was his routine when he was single, because for some reason he always dated guys that knew how to cook, so when he got home the meal was already there.

He wasn’t surprised when he got to his apartment and saw Seungcheol eating at the table, he got memories from when they were together and he tried to suppress them. He shook his head and walked to the kitchen. 

“I thought you would come later.” Seungcheol mumbled while he ate.

“I finish around this hour usually.”

Seungcheol nodded and decided to not say anything else, Jihoon turned around, usually, he would go to his room or the living room to have dinner, especially now that Seungcheol was there. But he was staying at his house to try to help him and they weren’t together anymore, he wanted to behave like an adult. So he sat at the kitchen table, in front of Seungcheol. There was a moment of awkward silence, Jihoon tried to break it.

“What do you do?” he mumbled raising his head. 

“I’m a teacher.” Seungcheol answered with a sweet smile, Jihoon raised his eyebrows surprised. 

“Really? That’s not…”

“Yeah, it’s not what I wanted to do… But it’s nice, I like it. I teach at our old college.”

“That’s nice.” Jihoon nodded slowly “Is professor Kang still there?”

“Yes,” Seungcheol answered while laughing “And he still hasn’t realised that everybody knows that he wears a toupee.” Jihoon laughed when he heard that.

“Do you remember when we took it from him and he didn’t realise for the whole lesson?”

“Yes.” they both started laughing at that memory “It’s fucked up, what’s happening to you, the promotion thing.”

“Yeah, I had a meeting today with my boss about the promotion, it was obvious it was only for the image of the company, to make it look like we support minorities. Especially when homosexuality is such a taboo topic here.”

“I thought you didn’t want to work for a company like that.”

“I can’t complain, we’re in Korea, I have to be grateful that they didn’t kick me out when they found out that I’m gay.” Jihoon mumbled thoughtfully “I understand about the whole established relationship, it’s very stereotypical, but that’s how society sees us, obsessed with sex.” 

“Well…”

“Shut up.” Jihoon laughed and kicked him under the table “Anyways, I have to be quiet for now and do anything they ask me to have that promotion. Then I can change everything I don’t like.” Seungcheol smiled when he heard that.

“I’m happy for you Jihoon.”

Jihoon smiled and looked at his meal, at least both of them were mature enough to forget the past, maybe it wasn’t that bad to see Seungcheol again.


	3. Chapter 3

"Seungcheol, I am going to kill you!" Jihoon shouted as he left the kitchen.

"What now?!" Seungcheol sighed and came out of the bathroom, with his toothbrush still in his mouth.

"How many times do I have to tell you to turn off the fucking oven when you're done using it?! One of these days you're going to burn the house down!"

"Do you have to yell at me?! Just turn it off!"

"You're yelling at me too!"

At that moment the front of the apartment opened and the two of them turned their heads to see Soonyoung come in.

“What's going on here? I can hear you shouting from all the way down the hall.”

Jihoon started to shout, trying to explain to him what Seungcheol had done, but he didn't understand anything so he just rolled his eyes and sighed.

"You cannot fight over every nonsense, you don't know how long you will be together, try to get along."

The two breathed a tired sigh and Seungcheol returned to the bathroom, rolling his eyes.

"Jihoon, seriously, you really have to give the image of the perfect couple, so don't shout too much, the neighbours will listen to you."

"I can't stand being around him." Jihoon sighed, sitting on the sofa.

"Well then finish getting ready and let's go. Give me your laptop with the file you did yesterday, I'll finish it and we'll go to the meeting, okay?"

"Yes, here you go." Jihoon gave him his laptop and then he got up and went to his room to finish getting ready to go to work.

Soonyoung focused on the task at hand, he was distracted only when he saw Seungcheol walk to the kitchen calmly without a shirt. He didn't understand how Jihoon could get guys who looked like fucking models, he thought Mingyu was probably the most attractive guy he'd ever been with, but apparently, he was wrong because Seungcheol wasn't lagging behind. And after trying to find Seokmin's number his computer now thought that he was interested in him and now it didn't stop suggesting articles related to his company, again, another one that he wouldn't be surprised to see on the cover of a magazine, which probably was.

Seungcheol came back from the kitchen and sat on the sofa next to him, turned on the TV calmly while Soonyoung continued to do what he was supposed to do.

"Do you come here a lot?" He asked him suddenly, although the answer was quite obvious because Soonyoung had a copy of the key to the apartment and had been there for the last few days.

"Yes, it's the only way I can get Jihoon out of the office, if we do the work at home it relaxes more. When I was with..." Soonyoung cut himself immediately before continuing to speak, Seungcheol turned to look at him strangely as he saw that he didn't finish the sentence.

"You can talk about his ex-boyfriend, it's not like we're together, I don't care." He said with a slight smile.

"Well, when he was with Mingyu they fought sometimes because Jihoon spent a lot of time in the office so we ended up doing this." 

Soonyoung turned his head to look at him strangely when Seungcheol burst out laughing. He was about to ask what was so funny, but Jihoon came in out of the bedroom.

"God, you haven't changed a bit, don't drink directly from the carton." Jihoon complained when he saw Seungcheol with the carton of milk in his hand, he took it from him and left it on top of the coffee table.

"Are you going to learn to stop controlling me at some point in your life?"

"I hope I don't have to be with you long enough to stop because you're too messed up, I don't think I'll ever stop," he rolled his eyes, Seungcheol sighed. "Shall we go?" He gestured calmly to Soonyoung as he put on his jacket.

"Yeah, let's go."

Soonyoung couldn't understand why they got along so badly, Seungcheol seemed like a really nice guy judging by the few days he knew him, but Jihoon seemed like he couldn't stand him for a minute without wanting to throw something at his head. There had to be something that made him hate him so much, maybe they had a bad breakup, but he did not have the courage to ask Jihoon.

Every time he walked into Jihoon's house he could hear him shout at Seungcheol, at that rate the entire company would find out that he hated his supposed boyfriend. Only a week had passed and Jihoon still couldn't be reasoned with.

Soonyoung opened the door and sighed as he heard the screams in the room.

"Not again." He muttered to himself.

"IT'S MY HOUSE!"

"I HAVE EVERY RIGHT!"

"YOU DON'T!"

"What's going on here?" Soonyoung stopped them as he entered the room, the two stopped shouting and looked at Soonyoung, they both had slightly accelerated breaths due to the fight.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT?!" they both shouted at the same time and Soonyoung took a frightened step backwards.

"Relax, what's going on? The neighbours will hear from you."

Jihoon and Seungcheol began to shout trying to explain what had happened, Soonyoung didn't understand anything because they were both shouting at the same time.

"Stop, speak clearly, what happened?"

"Jihoon here doesn't know how to say thank you."  Seungcheol explained, folding his arms.

"I never asked you in the first place!"

"I just made you dinner!" Soonyoung raised his eyebrows in surprise, then sighed, hitting his forehead.

"You two are unbelievable, are you being serious?"

"I don't need someone to come and do things for me at home, I can cook perfectly!"

"It still wouldn't kill you to thank me, even if you don't eat it!"

After that, they started screaming again and Soonyoung understood nothing again, Seungcheol had apparently done several things that Jihoon could have done if he had had more time and that bothered him because they were no longer a couple and Jihoon didn't need Seungcheol to do anything for him. And for a topic of discussion Soonyoung found it quite stupid.

"I JUST WANTED TO HELP YOU!"

"I DON'T NEED YOUR HELP!"

"YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO...!"

"SHUT OFF!"

Soonyoung frowned at that and watched as the two remained completely silent looking at each other for a few moments, he decided to remain silent until something happened.

"I'm not going to do that." Seungcheol muttered before walking to his room.

Jihoon sighed and covered his face with one hand just as he heard the door close.

"What was that?" Soonyoung asked, still confused.

"Nothing... I shouldn't have done it, god" He sighed again and fell on the sofa.

"Why did you say that to him?"

"Because... It was something we used to do when we fought," Jihoon paused and Soonyoung sat on the couch. "One day we were screaming and I was wrong and instead of saying 'shut up' I said 'shut off', because I had my phone in my hand and I had just turned it off and I wasn't thinking. He..." Jihoon laughed slightly without realizing it. "He laughed, lowered his head and closed his eyes as if he was a robot shutting off. I said thank you, we both laughed and forgot what we were fighting about. It became a habit, partly the reason why we lasted so long after college, we fought a lot, but we did that, we laughed and forgot what we were fighting about in the first place."

"Why not do it now?"

"We're not together Soonyoung, you've seen how he reacted, I've done it out of habit, but I really shouldn't have done it," he muttered rising from the sofa. "Are you staying for dinner?"

"Are we going to eat what Seungcheol cooked?" he asked with a smile while getting up and following Jihoon to the kitchen.

"If you eat what he cooked, you won't set foot in this house again." Jihoon murmured in a bad mood, causing Soonyoung to burst out laughing.

The next day Jihoon and Soonyoung were in Jihoon's office while working on a couple of things quietly, the company was running smoothly, they hadn't yet had any litmus test of their relationship with Seungcheol, but they were sure they would at some point.

"I was at a meeting this morning, the CEO said there was going to be a conference."

"I guess I have to bring Seungcheol, don't I?" Jihoon rolled his eyes.

"Yes, of course, it's the best chance for them to see that you're the perfect couple." Jihoon laughed slightly at that.

"You're six years late." He muttered absently as he wrote on his computer and looked at a sheet of paper.

"Did you make a good couple?" Soonyoung asked carefully.

"It doesn't matter anymore, we're not together." he replied sharply.

"I don't understand what's going on with this boy, he seems very nice.

"Well, it wasn't my fault it was all over, so no matter how 'nice' he is it's not my call."

"Did he break up with you?" Jihoon sighed at that and leaned back in his chair.

"It wasn't..." Jihoon thought about it for a moment "It was complicated. But it wasn't in my hand, so..." He finished the sentence by shrugging his shoulders.

"You were with him for a long time, did the relationship die or something?"

"No, Soonyoung, we didn't end things like every couple does. It was different. Usually, when you've been going out with someone for a while you get tired of that person or the relationship dies little by little, one of us realizes it and ends the relationship, that's normal."

"That's what happened with Mingyu, right?"

"Partly, but it wasn't like that with us. I loved him," Jihoon paused briefly and thought for a second what he was going to say. "I thought he would be the one, I suppose he thought the same of me. The relationship never died, we never stopped loving each other, it's just that we finished college together and life hit us hard. I got a job and I was never at home because I worked so much and Seungcheol was having a hard time getting a job, he was turned down in every interview and never lasted more than two weeks in a job. Our fights were always the same, we never finished them because I turned him off and we laughed, it was a conversation we never had."

"And why did you break up then?"

"Because we finally had the conversation and we both said things that..." Jihoon sighed, "We had a very strong argument and Seungcheol left, that's it."

"You're always late, is it that hard to come to dinner on time?!" Seungcheol shouted, dropping a plate on the floor and causing it to break.

"Maybe you should just change the time, if you really cared, you would!"

"I just want you to stop working for a while and have some free time!

"I have free time!"

"But you never spend it with me!"

"That's because all you do is have free time! You don't have a job!"

"Oh thank you so much Jihoon, that was a low blow." Seungcheol folded his arms and frowned.

"It's the truth! I don't know how I didn't realize it in college."

"Realize what?!"

"THAT YOU'RE USELESS AND YOU DON'T  HAVE A FUTURE!" Suddenly he shouted without thinking too much, Seungcheol was silent for a moment.

"AND YOU'RE A COWARD WHO CAN'T COMMIT TO ANYTHING!"

"Excuse me?" Jihoon asked, offended.

"You spend all day at work because you're afraid to be home, because you know what's going on with us is getting serious!"

"That's not true!"

"Don't make me laugh Jihoon, you've been going out with me for three years, I still haven't met your parents and the only time you've met mine was because I forced you."

"No, I don't..."

"I am the longest relationship you've ever had because I AM THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN STAND BEING WITH YOU!" he shouted the last words much louder and Jihoon was completely silent.

"Maybe I don't want us to be something serious because I don't want to take care of you all my fucking life. You don't have any kind of ambition and I pay for everything, you're lazy."

"I'm leaving." Seungcheol sentenced walking towards his room, Jihoon followed him confused.

"What?"

"I can't be with someone who thinks like that of me. I thought we were in this together!" he shouted as he pulled out a small suitcase from under the bed and began to put his clothes and things into it without any kind of order.

"Do you think I don't want to be at home with you?! I work for both of us, I can't be at home to keep you happy!"

"Maybe if you were home more I wouldn't be so depressed every time I'm turned down for a job and I'd be more eager to find a new one!"

"Seungcheol, it's not my fault!"

"Exactly! It's not your fault because this isn't "us" anymore! If I'm a burden to you then I'm leaving. You won't have to think about coming home early and I won't feel like a burden to you every day." He finished talking and closed the suitcase and then got it out of bed.

"All right, leave, I don't need you anymore!"

"That's the point, idiot, you've never needed me!" Seungcheol grabbed the suitcase and walked to the door.

"WELL, GOODBYE! I WISH I NEVER SEE YOU AGAIN!"

"AT LAST WE AGREE ON SOMETHING, GOODBYE!"

"And what happened next?" Soonyoung muttered when Jihoon finished explaining.

"Nothing, he left, he came back the next day to pick up all of his stuff while I was working and we never spoke again.... Until now."

"It was the fault of both of us... Why are you so angry with him?"

"He left me, he left home when I needed him the most without thinking it twice. We had fights like this before, but he never tried to leave me. I didn't think he would do it, he caught me completely by surprise. It was abrupt, one morning we're having breakfast together, telling each other we love each other, and the next morning I have to get used to the idea that I'm never going to see him again. It was very abrupt."

Soonyoung nodded slowly and decided not to ask him any more questions or bring it up again because it seemed that Jihoon was not comfortable talking about it. He was quite quiet for the rest of the day.


	4. Chapter 4

Soonyoung took a long sigh as he opened the door to Jihoon's apartment and could hear the two of them shouting at each other in the living room. He didn't even bother to ask what was going on, he simply entered the room, determined to finish all that because he was sick of hearing them scream so much. 

"Ok, both of you shut the fuck up!" he shouted to the two of them, clapping his hands, Jihoon turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow. 

"What's the matter with you?"

"I'm sick of your fights! And I'm sure your neighbours are too, so this is going to end now."

"It's not my problem if you're forcing me to live with the biggest fool in the universe."

"I don't care! You have to learn to get along because when someone from the company comes and asks the neighbours what the 'perfect couple' looks like, they're not going to like to hear how everyone hates you because of the screams."

"And what do you expect us to do about it?" Seungcheol asked, rolling his eyes and folding his arms. 

"Sit down," he ordered pointing at the sofa, both of them looked up at him with incredulous eyebrows. "Did I stutter?" He spoke more convincingly again. 

They sighed loudly and then sat on the sofa, Soonyoung grabbed a chair and put it in front of them. 

"What is this, couple therapy?" Seungcheol asked, folding his arms. 

"We have to be a couple for that, jerk."

"Be thankful that if I sent you to couple therapy the whole company would know because I would bet my job that I would," Soonyoung spoke still angry, Jihoon rolled his eyes, Soonyoung didn't usually get angry but when he did he preferred not to say anything. 

"All right, and how do you plan to make this all end?"

"I'm not going to do anything, you're the ones who have to fix this mess."

"And how do you expect us to do that?" Seungcheol muttered calmly. 

"How did you make up when you were together?"

"The 'shut off' bullshit."

"Yes, but I'm not going to do that nonsense again, we were together and I didn't care, but now I'm not going to let you tell me what to do, it's dumb," Seungcheol complained. 

Jihoon shrugged and looked at Soonyoung raising his eyebrows as if that were the great evidence that there was no possible fix to the whole situation.  

"Guys, you've got to stop fighting, the neighbours are listening, and if a worker comes over here and someone goes off the tongue we're dead. Try to get along or try to not fight." the two of them frowned without agreeing with Soonyoung "You've been together for three years."

"Almost three." Jihoon corrected.

"All right, almost three. Still, didn't spend those three years fighting. How did you make up when you were together?"

The two of them moved their eyes around the room as if they were trying to remember what they did every time they fought. He saw Jihoon frown immediately and Seungcheol smiled slightly.

"No!" exclaimed Jihoon suddenly and Soonyoung noticed that Seungcheol was laughing.

"What's wrong, why not?" he asked a bit puzzled.

"Because we just fucked." Seungcheol laughed.

"Seungcheol!" Jihoon shouted, and Soonyoung couldn't help laughing slightly because Jihoon looked nervous.

"Did you have sex every time you fought?" Soonyoung asked with a slight laugh, he thought about how many times they fought.

"This conversation is over!" Jihoon got up and went to his room.

Soonyoung turned to look at Seungcheol when he heard the door slamming. 

"With all the fights you have, are you meaning to tell me that you had make up sex every single time?" he asked incredulously a slight smile on his face still from Jihoon's reaction, Seungcheol shrugged with a smile. "Fuck, poor Jihoon. Reconciliation sex is fine, but isn't it a little strong?" Seungcheol frowned at that. 

"Huh?" Soonyoung took a moment to answer but Seungcheol seemed to understand what he meant before he said something. "I don't think you understand how make up sex works, if I'm mad at him all the time, then yes, 'poor Jihoon'. But as you can see, most of the time he's the one who is angry with me." He answered calmly and then got up and walked to the kitchen. 

Soonyoung frowned for a moment and then opened his mouth in surprise when he understood what he meant. He rose from his seat and followed Seungcheol into the kitchen. 

"And I suppose that's not a viable option right now, is it?" Seungcheol turned to look at him confused. 

"Do you want me to have sex with Jihoon?"

"Why not? You don't have to get back together, it can be just sex, it's always good and judging by the mood you both have, you urgently need it."

Seungcheol laughed at that. 

"I'm not touching Soonyoung, we're not together," he replied calmly. "Besides, if we do, our neighbours won't complain about the screams they'll complain about... of another kind of screaming."

"But at least the company will know you're alright."

"I'm not going to have sex with Jihoon," Soonyoung sighed tiredly. "Are you staying for dinner?"

"Yes, let's see if I can get Jihoon out of his room, we have to go over some things."

"Listen, I'll try not to fight with Jihoon anymore." Soonyoung's face lit up with a smile when he heard that. "I don't promise anything, you know how stubborn he is."

"God, thank you, seriously." He said with a broad smile. 

"Another thing, Jihoon has told me something about an event..."

"Oh yes, it will be this weekend, you have to be there."

"All right, do we have to make something up?"

"Not really, you can tell the truth, how you met, how long you've been together, etc. It will be more credible if you both say something that's true."

"All right," Seungcheol muttered absent-mindedly while cooking. "But I thought it would be tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? Oh, no, you don't have to go there. It's just a dinner between colleagues, the only one with an important job there will be Jihoon so it's not in our interest for you to come. You're free this time," he replied with a smile, Seungcheol nodded. 

"How long do you think this will last?"

"Mmmh... I'm not sure, it's been about two weeks. We have the event, that gives them a first impression, they decide if it's true for themselves, etc. Then they'll want proof, that's what I'll take care of, so there's no problem."

"Proof?"

"Pictures, videos, people who know you're together. Things like that," Soonyoung spoke calmly. "After they'll decide if it is true or not, and from there it's just paperwork. So I guess it'll be a couple more weeks, maybe three. You won't have to be here much longer, don't worry."

"Of course," Seungcheol replied as he cooked calmly. 

* * *

 

Jihoon could have a  rest from seeing Seungcheol when he was at work. He loved his job very much, he was doing all that farce for a reason, he wanted that job since he had come out of college and Seungcheol knew it perfectly, it was probably the only reason he was helping him. Jihoon was grateful to him for doing that, but he really would have preferred it to be anyone else. 

In any case, he was going to have a reward and that was his dream job. His colleagues kept congratulating him on that, especially at the dinner they had that night. Jihoon was not going to admit that he might have had too much to drink, but he was having a great time with his colleagues and it was good to forget for a few hours about his bosses, or Seungcheol. Although the latter was quite difficult to forget because his friends didn't stop talking about it. 

"Yes, but Kang has all of us by the throat, especially you Soonyoung," Wonwoo said with a smile, Soonyoung laughed. 

"We can always make fun of him now, as long as this conversation stays in this table because otherwise we get fired." Vernon laughed as he approached the glass and drank. 

"Do you think this is enough? That man even comes out in my nightmares, what we need is a bigger distraction." Chan spoke with a smile.

"The only one here who can forget all this is Jihoon, who is the only one who returns home to his perfect boyfriend. He probably has more important things to do than think about work." Jihoon laughed when he heard that. 

"Jealous?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, everyone at the table laughed. 

"Surely he won't even remember us when he gets home."

"At this rate, he's going to forget about us before he gets there, how many drinks have you had?" Jihoon laughed when he heard that, he was really drunk. 

"Me? We're all the same here, the difference is that you're going home to vomit and I'm not." He spoke with a smile, making everyone laugh. 

He never had much tolerance with alcohol and when he talked to his colleagues about that topic, it got stuck in his head. He was not in his right mind and when he got home he could only think of one thing.

Jihoon opened the door in the fourth attempt to insert the key into the keyhole, he stumbled in and closed the door behind him with a loud knock.

"Seungcheol!" He called him trying to wake him up because he was probably asleep, but it didn't sound as loud as he wanted to, "Seungcheol!" He tried again as he took off his shoes, it still didn't sound like a scream, but when he got to the living room he found Seungcheol standing, fresh out of bed, looking asleep, just out of his room.

"Jihoon? Do you know what time it is?" he asked, running one hand through his hair.

"There you are." He said with a smile and approached him.

"Are you drunk?" Seungcheol looked at him with a frown.

"A little," he said, giggling and then a hiccup "But it's all right, come here."

Jihoon finally approached him and grabbed him by the shoulders to lower him, Seungcheol opened his eyes in surprise when he felt that he was beginning to leave kisses on his neck.

"Ji-..... What are you doing?" He held him by the hips trying to push him away a bit but Jihoon placed his hands on his shoulders and went on to do the same on his ear.

"Wasn't that what you wanted? If you're going to pretend to be my boyfriend and we have to live together, at least let's fuck, we don't have to get back together to have sex." Jihoon explained, looking him in the eye and shrugging his shoulders, his cheeks and nose were rosy from how drunk he was.

"No, you'll regret it tomorrow."

"Regret having sex with you? Oh, believe me, no." Seungcheol turned his face away and Jihoon started kissing his neck again.

"All right, come here." Seungcheol bent down a bit and held the back of Jihoon's thighs and lifted him off the floor.

Jihoon immediately surrounded Seungcheol's hips with his legs and made a sound of victory without detaching his lips from Seungcheol's neck. He walked into Jihoon's room and when he entered he closed the door with his foot, approached the bed and let Jihoon fall on top of it. Seungcheol climbed onto the bed and stood on top of him, beginning to leave soft kisses under his jaw as he unbuttoned his belt and then his pants. When he was finished he separated from him and lifted his legs to slide his pants to one side, Jihoon was breathing fast and kept his eyes fixed on Seungcheol. The older man approached him again and began to kiss his stomach as he lifted up his shirt, when he reached his chest he made him raise his arms to remove the garment and throw it aside. He approached his face and could feel his noses touching while opening the drawer of the bedside table with one hand. Jihoon searched for his lips by lifting his head a bit, but Seungcheol moved away with a smile on his face.

"Kiss me," Jihoon asked him, he was sick of that game.

Seungcheol stood up, he was still sitting on Jihoon's hips and looked at him with a slight smile on his face. Jihoon frowned and the next thing he knew is that Seungcheol had separated his back from the mattress and then he couldn't see anything.

"What? Noooooooo..." he complained when he realized that Seungcheol was putting his arms into the sleeves of his pyjama "No, I don't want to sleep, I want to have sex with you."

"No Jihoon, we're not going to do it." Jihoon pouted as soon as his face was visible.

"Why not?" he said in a begging tone, Seungcheol got up from above him.

"Because you're drunk, because I don't want to take advantage of you, because we're not together... because it's not what you really want."

"Yes, I do. I miss having sex with you, it's the best sex I've ever had," he said while Seungcheol covered him with the sheets.

"I won't touch you, Jihoon, no matter how much you beg," he tried to ignore the sad face he was making and ran a hand through his hair before standing up and leaving the room. "Sleep well," he said before leaving.

"I hate you," Jihoon muttered half asleep.

"I know." Seungcheol sighed and finally closed the door.

* * *

 

Jihoon and Seungcheol did not talk about what had happened the other night, the only thing Seungcheol did the next morning was give him an aspirin for the headache and they behaved as if nothing had happened. 

They didn't speak on the remaining days until it was the night of the event. Jihoon was really ashamed of what he had done, he was not thinking straight and his friends had put an idea in his head, but he forgot that it was all a farce and that they were not together. Seungcheol simply wasn't going to have sex with him just because Jihoon wanted to so he had to think twice before jumping in and doing things that would probably make all that farce more uncomfortable than it already was. 

The two of them were getting ready to go to the conference. Jihoon stepped out of his room and searched for his keys so that he could leave because they were already late. 

"Seungcheol, are you ready?" Jihoon asked as he looked in the mirror to fix his hair. 

"Just a minute!"

Jihoon took a long sigh and walked to Seungcheol's room because he knew perfectly well why it was taking so long. 

"Come here," he called him and approached him, grabbed his undone tie and began to knot it. "I assumed that after three years you would have learned how to do this."

"Shut up, you were the same when you started wearing suits." Jihoon laughed at that.   

"You're a teacher, don't you have to wear suits at some point?"

"I never wear a tie," Seungcheol muttered calmly, Jihoon rolled his eyes when he finished and separated from him. 

"Let's go."

Half an hour later the two of them were sitting as they listened as the CEO of the company talked about how his last quarter had gone at work. It lasted about an hour and after that everyone would be in a different room where they would give snacks and the executives could stay and talk. Soonyoung approached them with a broad smile as they entered the room. 

"Don't even think about screwing it up," he said with a smile on his face. "And don't be so distant, grab his arm or something."

Jihoon rolled his eyes and raised his arm to interlace it with Seungcheol's, he wouldn't have done it if he didn't really care about first impressions. It really was a key moment and they could not fuck it up at all.

One of Jihoon's bosses approached them while they were still talking to Soonyoung. 

"Hi, so this is Seungcheol?" he asked with a smile, he was an older man, Jihoon wondered why he had not retired yet, yet he smiled broadly. 

"Yes, Seungcheol, he is Mr Kang." He introduced them without erasing his false smile. 

"Seungcheol extended his hand with a smile for the lord to take. 

"You seem very close, how long have you been together?"

"Five years."

"Six years." 

The two turned to look at each other with a frown as they saw that they had said two completely different things, Soonyoung opened his eyes in surprise and Mr Kang laughed.

"You don't seem very convinced about it."

"No, it's just... Seungcheol always counts from the day we met, I count it from the day we made it official," Jihoon answered casually with a false smile on his face. 

"All right," replied Mr Kang without erasing his smile. "I hope you enjoy the evening." 

Soonyoung turned to look at them still surprised by what they had just done. 

"What's the matter with you?"

"What's the matter with you, what do you mean, five years?" Seungcheol began to speak irritably, "We were three years together and we broke up three years ago, do you not know how to count?"

"We were together for almost three years, genius." Seungcheol frowned and opened his mouth about to say something, he seemed angry. 

"Guys, please behave."

"How do you expect this to work?"

"Why don't you forget that you're not together anymore. Pretend for one night that you're back in college and you're still together, just one night." Jihoon and Seungcheol let out a sigh in unison. 

"All right." Soonyoung smiled relieved to hear that.      

"Okay, I'm going, please smile."

Jihoon looked up at Seungcheol without smiling yet, he was fed up with all that, but Seungcheol intertwined his arms again with a slight smile on his lips. 

"So, pretend we're back in college...?"

"What do you want to do?" sighed Jihoon, rolling his eyes. 

"Well, you have to introduce me to everybody, don't you?" Jihoon laughed slightly at that and followed Seungcheol, immediately understanding what he meant. 

During the night Jihoon and Seungcheol spoke to probably twenty people. Jihoon couldn't stop smiling, precisely because of what they were telling all those people. 

"Marriage? Isn't that illegal in Korea?" asked one of the company's partners in confusion.

"Yes, but not in many other countries, a nice honeymoon in Paris and the rest is just paperwork," replied Seungcheol with a smile.  

"It will be next year," Jihoon spoke without wiping the smile from his face.  

"Oh, have you already proposed?"

"Yes, Jihoon cried a lot," Seungcheol continued, laughing. 

"Excuse me? Adopt?" Mr Lee, one of the operatives, asked confusedly when Seungcheol told him about it.

"Of course, didn't you know? Lately, they are letting homosexual couples adopt in Korea, and Seungcheol has always liked children," Jihoon replied with a wide smile. 

"Excuse me?" asked Mr Kim, the sales manager, in confusion, when he heard the indecency that Jihoon had just said. 

"Yes, you know, after so many years, you have to avoid losing the flame." Seungcheol laughed at his reaction. 

Twenty minutes later Jihoon and Seungcheol were laughing out loud outside the room, they had to leave because they couldn't stand the laughter. Soonyoung opened the door and went out to look for them. 

"Can you tell me what the hell was that? I've been told what you've been saying," Jihoon opened his mouth to answer but began to laugh and threw his head back, resting his hand on Seungcheol's arm, who was also laughing. "What's the matter with you?" Soonyoung asked with a slight smile, he wasn't going to lie, he liked to see how much fun they were having.

"They want to support the minorities, don't they?" Jihoon asked with a smile, trying to put up with the laughter, "Well, that's what they're doing." Seungcheol laughed out loud at that, Jihoon laughed as well.

"What he's talking about... You said you wanted us to behave like we did college, didn't you? We did this all the time. When we talked to someone older, more conservative, we invented a whole perfect future. Anything that scandalizes them, marriage, adoption, sex, anything they don't want a gay couple to do." Soonyoung laughed at that. 

"All right, well done, they're a little offended but I think they think you're the perfect couple," Soonyoung replied with a smile. "And if you're being asked about wedding invitations next year, don't come and complain to me," he warned Jihoon before entering the room again, he laughed at that. 

"Let's go inside and see if we can get something to eat," Seungcheol said with a smile, extending his arm to intertwine it with him, Jihoon nodded with a smile and took his arm to enter the room again. 


	5. Chapter 5

Jihoon had grown accustomed to the fact that he had to live with Seungcheol for the next two weeks, at least, maybe three according to Soonyoung, who knew? After the small spectacle they put on at the event they'd ensured that quite a few of their bosses would believe the relationship, now came the time when Soonyoung did everything the CEO asked him to prove that Jihoon and Seungcheol's relationship was real. 

"What is this?" Jihoon asked when he went to look at the time on his phone and saw that the wallpaper had changed and now he had a picture of Seungcheol.

"Oh, I changed it when you went to the bathroom, it will be much more credible if you have it."

"We didn't even do this shit when we were together." Jihoon sighed, sitting at his desk.

"Well, nowadays couples do that a lot, taking pictures, videos, everybody uses social media and it's the first thing they'll look at when they look for evidence of you together."

"No problem, I didn't delete the photos we had together on facebook. Because I don't use it anymore." He replied while typing on his computer and shrugging.

"You don't use it anymore?"

"Who uses it?" replied Jihoon laughing.

"Don't you have any photos saved? They still think I'm like an undercover looking at your phone and telling them if the relationship is false or not. If I show them some pictures you supposedly have on your phone they will believe it."

"Eeh... Yes, I think I have some pictures on my phone, take it." he said while getting up to give him the phone "I don't know where though. I'll leave you to it, I have a meeting," he spoke as he walked towards the door. "Oh, and if Seungcheol calls... Tell him I died."

"At your orders," Soonyung replied with laughter as he unlocked his phone, he already knew the password of so many times he had seen Jihoon type it.

He started with the basics, the gallery, there was nothing to do with Seungcheol there, some from Mingyu, but nothing from Seungcheol. So he went to see if there was anything on the memory card. Nothing there, the phone wasn't that old. There was nothing in his drive files either, Jihoon didn't keep photos or videos unless they were work documents. He was about to surrender when he finally saw the mail icon. Soonyoung sometimes kept some files there in the drafts, he thought maybe Jihoon did too. He began to scroll down among the messages, almost all were mails he had not been able to send, there were none with attached files. He decided to go directly to the year in which he was still with Seungcheol when he was getting tired he saw a draft called  **_"sc"_ ** . He opened it, it had a folder attached. So he opened it and began to see what was there.

It was full of pictures. Photos and photos that Jihoon or Seungcheol had taken of each other, some selfies, a lot of pictures of Jihoon sleeping, a lot of pictures of Seungcheol cooking. Soonyoung couldn't help smiling with every new photo he saw, they made a very good couple and Soonyoung didn't that they were a good couple, not even after hearing it from their friends, but now that he saw the photos he believed it.

Then he got to the videos. There was one in which the two of them had recorded themselves singing a  _ Mamma mia _ song at full volume and fooling around. There was another one that Seungcheol had recorded with a flash to wake Jihoon up, and all Jihoon was doing was asking him to turn it off and leave him alone while Seungcheol's laughter was heard on the other side. He could see the thumbnail of a video that began with Seungcheol and Jihoon kissing, he hit play without hesitation.

**_"Is this allowed?"_ ** the voice of a third boy was heard, the one holding the camera, and Jihoon and Seungcheol stopped kissing immediately.

**_"Jeonghan, don't record!"_ ** Jihoon shouted despite laughing.

**_"It's the least I can do if I'm being your third wheel."_ **

**_"Then we'd better give him something worth recording,"_ ** Seungcheol smiled to lure Jihoon back in and join his lips again.

**_"I think the recording is over,"_ ** whispered the boy before finishing the video.

The next video started to play automatically, Jihoon was seen in a suit as he laughed.

**_"Look at you."_ ** he heard Seungcheol's laughter, holding the phone, and then Jihoon's, who tried to pull the phone away.

**_"What are you doing?"_ ** Jihoon asked, laughing, covering his face slightly.

**_"Recording you for posterity, this is the first time I've seen you in a suit."_ **

**_"Stop recording me, Cheol, let's go, we'll be late,"_ ** Jihoon said, trying to take the cell phone out of his hands, but Seungcheol stepped back and kept filming him.

**_"You're so perfect. I thought you couldn't be more perfect, you always surprise me Jihoonie."_ ** Jihoon laughed, trying to cover his face because of the embarrassment. 

**_"It won't be the last time you see me in a suit, chill."_ **

**_"It better not be the last one, we still have to get married."_ **

**_"Do you like this one or a white one?"_ ** Jihoon asked jokingly while doing a couple of poses for the camera.

**_"White definitely, you'll look like an angel."_ **

**_"Nobody's going to believe it anyway,"_ ** the two laughed.

**_"They don't have to believe it, you're one to me."_ ** Jihoon laughed slightly looking directly at the camera, or actually what was behind it.

**_"You're so corny,"_ ** he said, wrinkling his nose.

**_"But you love me anyway."_ **

**_"You're right. I love you,"_ ** Jihoon replied approaching the camera and grabbing Seungcheol, the camera moved a bit but the next angle could be seen perfectly as they kissed.

**_"I love you,"_ ** Seungcheol said to him near his lips probably forgetting that the camera was still recording, it was almost inaudible for the video, but Soonyoung heard it because he had headphones on. Seconds later the video ended.

When the video finished Soonyoung realized he was smiling. Where was all that love in the relationship? Now there was only fights and hate. He smiled when he saw that the videos had dates, that was enough proof of their relationship. Now that he had proof of that he became curious, the videos he'd seen were from the time they were both in college, so he decided to go directly to the date they had already graduated. He was surprised to find even more videos and pictures from that time.

**_"Seungcheol..."_ ** he heard Jihoon talking while holding the phone and recording Seungcheol, who was sitting in front of a computer, it looked like his house  **_"Seungcheol, Seungcheol, Seungcheol..."_ ** Jihoon repeated his name as he zoomed in on him  **_"Are you angry with me?"_ **

**_"Leave me alone Jihoon."_ **

**_"I'm soooorry. I made you dinner."_ ** Seungcheol raised his head from the screen.

**_"Really?"_ **

**_"Yes, I'll let you eat if you forgive me."_ ** Seungcheol laughed and the video ended just as Seungcheol was getting up.

The next video started to play automatically and he could see Jihoon and Seungcheol sitting on the sofa of their old house, Jihoon was recording them both with the selfie camera.

**_"Explain what you've done,"_ ** Jihoon said with a funny expression.

**_"Are we really going to do this?"_ ** Seungcheol sighed, his head resting on Jihoon's shoulder.

**_"Yes, of course, my mom will laugh so much when she hears it,"_ ** Jihoon answered with a slight smile, Seungcheol sighed.

**_"This morning... I got confused with our clothes and I put on Jihoon's clothes because someone..."_ ** he paused and looked suggestively at Jihoon.  **_"Left all of his clothing on the floor."_ **

**_"No one told me that that was your personal closet and that you would put it on without thinking about it."_ ** Jihoon laughed thinking about it.

**_"But it's not my fault if you..."_ ** they started fighting in the video, even though it wasn't very strong it was a small passive-aggressive fight.

**_"I leave my clothes on the floor and you keep them in the closet, it's an order in the disorder, you can't leave the clothes on the floor, what if I hadn't noticed and I went to the job interview with your clothes? They'd think I was there for..."._ ** Seungcheol began to speak and Jihoon looked at the camera with a smile as he listened to him speak.

**_"Shut off,"_ ** he said softly as Seungcheol began to talk nonsense.

He immediately lowered his head against his chest closing his eyes and pretending he was really turning off, Jihoon laughed when he saw him.

**_"Thank you."_ ** Seungcheol raised his head and the two laughed.

Seungcheol began to kiss Jihoon's neck loudly until it reached his cheek, provoking a giggle from Jihoon.

**_"Great, now I can't send the video to my mom,"_ ** Jihoon laughed, moving the camera absently.

**_"Well maybe we should go see her, you know long-distance relationships never work."_ **

**_"It's my mom Seungcheol, besides, I don't have time with my work. You also know that she doesn't care, she likes to watch these videos."_ **

**_"Well, think of another video because we can't send this one to her. Turn it off."_ **

**_"Oh."_ ** Jihoon laughed when he saw that he hadn't stopped recording yet, and the video ended.

Soonyoung looked curiously at the date of the video and according to what Jihoon had told him that video had been made about a week before he broke up with Seungcheol.

Jihoon looked happy. He had never seen Jihoon that happy before, with a broad smile and happy that he was with someone, and he liked that fact a lot. He wasn't even like that when he was dating Mingyu. Jihoon was an independent person, watching those videos was like seeing a completely different side to what he was used to. They both looked happy and it didn't look like they would break up a week later, and never speak to each other again, it just didn't make sense.

At that moment the screen lit up again and an incoming call came from a number saved as " **_Asshole_ ** ".

Soonyoung sighed when he read that and picked up the phone.

"Jihoon wants me to tell you that he died,"

"Tell him to let me know when it's for real, I don't want to start throwing a party for nothing."

"You guys are unbelievable. I just watched a bunch of your videos and I couldn't believe it was you, how did you end up like this?"

"Oh, the videos," Seungcheol muttered.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I thought he'd deleted them by now."

"Well, he had them pretty hidden, I doubt that he remembers them."

"No, he remembers. We recorded everything."

"Why? Jihoon doesn't look like someone that would do that."

"When we were in college they had an assignment for his class that consisted of recording their day-to-day life, it was basically to study everyday problems and use them to satisfy a certain audience. You know, marketing." Seungcheol paused briefly and Soonyoung remained silent, "We kept doing it because I helped him with the assignment and then it was just part of our routine, almost everyone in his class kept doing it, everyone recorded anything that happened, even though at that time it wasn't as popular as it is now."

"I understand..." Soonyoung muttered, scratching his head with a pencil, he heard a few footsteps and turned around. "I'll talk to you later, Jihoon is coming," he said, and then hung up and left the mobile in the desk.

"Was that Seungcheol?" he asked, sitting at his desk.

"Yes."

"What did he say?"

"I'm not your messenger, ask him at yourself, when you go back home... to  _ your  _ house," he said, emphasizing in the last sentence.

"What are you trying to do?" Jihoon asked frowning.

"Nothing... It's just... I found the pictures and videos from when you were together. You made such a great couple."

"You said it yourself, we  _ made, _ in past tense," he said as he typed on his computer.

"But I don't understand, you told me that one of the reasons Seungcheol left you was because you didn't want to be in a serious relationship, but in one of the videos you talked about marriage."

Jihoon frowned and stopped typing.

"What...? Oh," he seemed to remember what Soonyoung was talking about because he smiled slightly and leaned back in his chair. "Yeah, I remember. It was at our graduation dinner, some professors had invited us to a restaurant and then we were going to party. A friend took me to buy a suit because I didn't have one and he told Seungcheol that it looked like our wedding. It was a joke, we spent the whole night joking and saying that it was our wedding, one of our teachers even made a speech as if he was my dad. The whole restaurant thought it was our real wedding, we had free champagne," he explained the last thing laughing "And while we were doing the joke Seungcheol was saying how he wanted our real wedding to be. He finished talking and turned to look at Soonyoung, who had a wide smile on his face, Jihoon stopped smiling immediately and looked at his computer again.

"That's..."

"It was years ago and it was a joke, we were very young, we didn't know anything about life. This conversation is over."

"And the guy who helped you buy a suit... was it Jeonghan?" Jihoon raised his head looking at him in surprise.

"Yes, how do you know?"

"He was in one of the videos, well, you said his name, but you know what I mean."

"Yeah, he helped me. Why?"

"No, because it would be nice if there was someone who was there while you were together, to corroborate the story."

"All right. But I haven't talked to him in years, we lost contact after we graduated."

"Just give me his full name and I'll call him."

"Yoon Jeonghan," Jihoon answered while looking at his screen.

Soonyoung nodded and got up to leave.

It was relatively easy to find the guy, he still lived in Seoul and had a small antique business. He answered the phone the first time and as soon as he heard Jihoon's name he accepted whatever Soonyoung was asking of him, which he found quite sweet. According to the CEO's instructions, he had asked him to personally ask a person close to Jihoon and Seungcheol about the nature of their relationship. So no matter how odd he had to ask Jeonghan to stop by the company to ask him a couple of questions, he would later give his boss the recorded audio of the conversation with the photos and videos he had found on Jihoon's phone. He hoped all that would end because he knew that Jihoon deserved the job and was fully capable of doing it, it made him feel bad that simply because of the image of the company he had to be going through all of that. 

He looked up at Jeonghan and decided to ask him a genuine question he had. 

"Do you think Jihoon and Seungcheol fight too much?"

"Jihoon and Seungcheol? Fight? Impossible, they are too in love for that, "Soonyoung opened his eyes surprised to hear that. "They are the typical perfect couple that everyone hates, you know they are going to live happily ever after. Before Seungcheol I really thought Jihoon wasn't going to be with anyone, he has a very strong personality, all the guys he ends up with leave at some point."

"And why do you think they've been together for so long?"

"I don't know, I guess they complement each other. Seungcheol has him on a pedestal, has a lot of patience with him and is too in love to be angry with him. Jihoon is also like that but he's better at hiding it."

"All right, I think that's good enough."

"Really? That's it?"

"Yeah, we just need someone to be a witness to their relationship, it's no big deal."

At that moment someone opened the door.

"Soonyoung, do you have...? Jeonghan?" Jihoon asked surprised when he saw Jeonghan in the room. 

"Jihoon!" Jeonghan rose and approached him to embrace him, Jihoon looked at him with a smile. 

"What are you doing here?"

"They need me for the whole promotion thing, something about that they don't think you're with Seungcheol or something, which seems silly to me, who doesn't think you're with him? I'm surprised he hasn't proposed yet!"

Jihoon raised an eyebrow and looked at Soonyoung.

"Yes, eehh... I didn't say anything to make everything more credible. Why don't you go and have some coffee and catch up?" he said with a smile. 

"I'm going to kill you," Jihoon muttered, although he was too happy to see Jeonghan again that he couldn't get too angry with Soonyoung. 

He thought his idea wasn't so bad so he took his break to go get a coffee and explained everything to Jeonghan.

"I can't believe you left Seungcheol." Jeonghan sighed, rolling his eyes after Jihoon finished talking. 

"I didn't leave him, he left me."

"I don't believe it, Seungcheol would never leave you."

"Yes, I thought so too, but three years later here I am, single."

"Okay, and how do you plan on getting back together with him?" Jihoon opened his eyes in surprise when he heard that. 

"Go back with him? I'm not going to do that."

"Jihoon, you have to go back with him. Are you going to tell me that you're going to throw your whole relationship away for a few fights? That's nonsense. "

"It wasn't just a few fights, it was a lot of fights."

"Yeah right, and now you're going to tell me that you had a toxic relationship, right? Tell me I can believe."

"No, but..."

"Listen, I don't care how many fights you've had, I don't think they're that horrible to end your relationship," Jihoon folded his arms and rolled his eyes. "What were the fights really about? You told me it was because Seungcheol didn't have a job, right? Well, he doesn't have a job, you yell at him because he's lazy, nothing new, you did it all the time when he wouldn't let you study because he wanted to see a film with you or something. And what did he always say to you?"

"Spending time with you is always more important than any job." Jihoon recited while rolling his eyes. 

"And what would you always tell him?"

"Well, then we're going to be two stupid lovers and homeless if we keep it up." he couldn't help laugh slightly when he heard what he had just said. 

"See? You're laughing. It's the same nonsense you did in college."

"No Jeonghan, it's different..."

"Yes, it's different in the sense that I wasn't there to fix your problems, Cupid Han would have fixed it in a minute," he said with a smile, Jihoon laughed out loud at that. 

"God, I haven't heard that in a long time."

"Are you living with him?" Jeonghan asked with a smile. 

"Yes, we are together, for now, when this is over he will move out."

"And what's it like? After three years, did you miss him?" Jihoon laughed at that. 

"The fights? Yes, of course, nothing like reminiscing the good old days."

"I don't believe the fights, really," Jeonghan said with a slight smile. "I mean, I expect it from you, from Seungcheol too if I have enough imagination. But it still doesn't seem too much to me to give up your entire relationship. Besides, you were fighting over problems you no longer have, what's the problem now?" Jihoon sighed and looked at him with a faint, tired smile. 

"He left me, do you want to talk to him about this?"

"Actually yes, I haven't seen him in a long time." Jihoon laughed when he heard that. 

"We can go out to dinner somewhere, surely he will be happy to see you too," Jihoon said with a smile, Jeonghan nodded with a smile but said nothing because Jihoon's phone was ringing, so he waited for him to answer. "Hello?"

"Jihoon, did it go? Did you update him?" he heard Soonyoung's cheerful voice on the other side. 

"It went well, what do you need?"

"I've sent you the documents you asked for, so you can finish them for the next meeting."

"All right, I'll say goodbye to Jeonghan and I'll go back," Jihoon replied calmly. 

"Perfect, I'll see you." Soonyoung ended the call and left his phone on the table. 

He let out a long sigh and leaned back in his seat, glanced at his computer screen vaguely and came back closer to continue working. He had been working all day so he was a little tired, he was distracted for a moment from what he had on the screen when his phone started to ring sometime later.

"Hello?" Soonyoung asked absently as he looked at his computer screen. 

"Hi, this is Lee Seokmin, do you remember me?" Soonyoung opened his eyes in surprise and leaned back in his chair, paying more attention to the conversation. 

"Yes, of course, I remember. How was New York?"

"It went great," Seokmin replied cheerfully. "So well that I decided to come back earlier. I was wondering if you could give me Jihoon's number, I want to see him again."


	6. Chapter 6

Jihoon opened his eyes slowly, feeling the sunlight coming through the window, he looked at his side to see the clock and thought he still had a little bit more time to get up and get ready to go to work. As soon as he felt a couple of arms embrace him and a kiss on his shoulder he smiled and turned his head to see Seungcheol.

"Good morning," Jihoon muttered with a smile, he turned slightly and joined his lips in a slow, sleepy kiss.

"Good morning, you're up early, what do you want for breakfast?"

"Are you going to cook me something?" Jihoon closed his eyes with a smile on his face.

"Whatever you want."

"Pancakes?"

"Pancakes it is," Seungcheol replied and then left a kiss on his chest, making Jihoon laugh. "Go take a shower, they'll be ready when you finish."

Jihoon nodded and kissed him before he got out of bed to go to the bathroom. Just like he promised, when he entered the kitchen a plate of pancakes was waiting for him. He approached Seungcheol and kissed him while he was finishing making some more.

Instead of sitting at the table to start eating Jihoon wrapped his arms around Seungcheol's waist and rested his chin on his chest to look up at him.

"What do you want for dinner tonight?" Seungcheol asked with a smile.

"Mmmhh... Surprise me." Jihoon closed his eyes, and Seungcheol lowered his head to give him a quick kiss.

"All right, I'll cook something nice." Seungcheol murmured and then wrapped his arms around him, lifted him off the floor and making him sit on the counter.

Jihoon raised his arms and placed them around Seungcheol's neck to kiss him slowly.

"Are you not going to eat what I have prepared for you?" Seungcheol asked, separating from him.

"I have more important things to do," Jihoon replied with a smile and then kissed him again

Seungcheol laughed and reached for the pancake plate still kissing him. When they finally separated Seungcheol took a peace out of one of the pancakes and placed it against Jihoon's mouth so he could eat. 

"I love you," Jihoon whispered with a smile near his lips as they parted, Seungcheol smiled, broke one and brought it up to his lips for Jihoon to eat.

"I love you too," Seungcheol replied with a smile, approaching him to leave a kiss on his cheek.

They spent a long time like this, having breakfast with kisses and laughter until Jihoon had to get ready to go to work.

Neither of them had any idea that a few hours later the two of them would be screaming and telling each other that they never wanted to see each other again just because Jihoon was late for dinner.

Much less that three years later they would be in a fake relationship and couldn't even bear to see each other because of how much they hated the other.

"Hey asshole, get up." Jihoon waved one hand and hit Seungcheol in the head, who was sitting on the sofa.

"What do you want?" Seungcheol muttered in a bad mood without looking away from his phone.

"Go take a shower already, we'll be late."

"It's Jeonghan, he's always late."

"Not when we haven't seen him in three years, get up already."

Seungcheol simply rolled his eyes and let out a sigh, he didn't think he was going to get so tired of living with Seungcheol, it had only been three weeks and he wanted to shoot him in the head.

"You really can't do anything, can you?" Seungcheol turned to look at Jihoon with a frown.

"You really can't go five minutes without trying to insult me in some way, can you?" Seungcheol rose from the couch and Jihoon began to scream.

They seemed to be back in the middle of their relationship, fighting because Seungcheol was not as dedicated as Jihoon and Jihoon sometimes went too far with that.

They continued to scream, Jihoon was so loud, probably because he was nervous about everything that was happening to him and was taking it out on Seungcheol. Neither of the two seemed to want to stop at any time, that was until Jihoon called him "careless" and "useless" again, at that point Seungcheol felt that he went too far.

"I'm sick of this!" Seungcheol suddenly shouted.

Jihoon raised his eyebrows and prepared to yell at him again, but Seungcheol grabbed him by the waist and lifted him off the ground.

"No! No, don't even think about it Seungcheol! If you think I'm going to stop being angry about this, you're so wrong!"

Seungcheol said nothing even though Jihoon grabbed on to anything so that he wouldn't take him where he thought they were going, he was hitting him and screaming so that Seungcheol would drop him on the floor already. But Seungcheol had always been stronger, so they reached the bathroom before Jihoon could do anything about it, Seungcheol shoved him into the bathtub quickly and turned on the shower, soaking Jihoon, who was still dressed, completely.

"I HATE YOU!" he shouted at him, hitting him and unable to do anything now that he was completely soaked.

"Are you calm now?" Seungcheol asked calmly.

Jihoon frowned and didn't reply, which indicated to Seungcheol that the answer was "yes". He waved one hand to grab a towel to dry Jihoon, but Jihoon took him by the hand and pushed him inside the shower with him, causing Seungcheol to get wet as well.

"Really?"

"You were yelling at me too," Jihoon spoke, looking at him with a frown.

Two seconds later the two of them were laughing. They hadn't done that in years, Jihoon had his way of ending any kind of fight he wanted, simply by "shutting off" Seungcheol. But Seungcheol had never used that method, once he was so fed up with Jihoon's screams, and he simply could not keep him quiet, so he resorted to the method his mother used when he was little and got angry. He lifted him off the floor and put him in the bathtub with clothes and then turned on the water.

Jihoon was so taken by surprise that he began to laugh, Seungcheol too, and both of them forgot what they were even fighting about. Since then Seungcheol used that method every time they had a very strong fight, and it could end in two ways, either Jihoon started laughing as soon as he was completely soaked or he started crying. Either way, the fight was over and the two could return to their normal lives.

Jihoon came out of the shower first and looked for two towels, he threw one at Seungcheol and the other one he used it to start drying his hair.

"I can't shut you off, but you can do this, right? I don't think it's fair."

"You should understand that I can't just forget about everything with two words."

"Why not?" Jihoon asked with a smile.

"I think it's understandable, context can change some stuff. You didn't start crying as soon as I put you in the shower."

"That only happened twice, you cried too, so don't tell me anything." they both laughed slightly after he said that.

Jihoon opened his eyes surprised when he heard the doorbell, probably Soonyoung because they had to meet Jeonghan at the restaurant. He opened the door and was not surprised to see Soonyoung with a wide smile on his face.

"Hey Soonyoung, this is not a good moment..." Jihoon began to speak, but Soonyoung cut him off.

"Guess who I'm coming with," Jihoon frowned confused at the sound of that.

"I don't know." He muttered, shrugging his shoulders and rolling his eyes.

He opened his eyes in surprise as Soonyoung moved aside and saw Seokmin looking at him with his radiant, characteristic smile.

"Seokmin?" he asked breathlessly in surprise.

"Hi Jihoon!" He greeted him with a smile and hugged him, but stopped when he saw that he was soaked.

"Why are you wet?" Soonyoung asked puzzled.

"Jihoon! Who is it?" Seungcheol was heard from the living room.

"Uuhhh... Why don't you come in? I have to change." he told them, closing the door and inviting them in.

He walked to the living room and wanted to kill himself when he saw Seungcheol without a T-shirt on while he was drying his hair with a towel.

"Who...?" He started to ask confused as soon as he saw Seokmin in the living room.

"Room." Jihoon interrupted him by pushing him back into the room, shutting the door behind him.

"Who was that?"

"Seokmin. My high school boyfriend," Seungcheol opened his eyes surprised to hear that, Jihoon simply took off his shirt to change. "Come on, take off your pants and finish drying yourself."

"I'd take that order without a second thought if you hadn't said that your ex-boyfriend is there. Why is your ex-boyfriend in the living room?" Seungcheol asked while taking his pants off.

"He was one of the options to be my fake boyfriend you weren't even on the list. But he had a job and couldn't come, I guess now he's done with his job and Soonyoung is trying to get us together. Which I appreciate after his fiasco in bringing you here." Seungcheol sighed when he heard that.

"Really? I wasn't even on your list? Wait... List? How many boyfriends have you had?"

"None of your business, fucking hell, I'm completely wet because of you," he complained when he noticed even his underwear was wet.

"Yeah, and I don't need a shower to do it again," Seungcheol replied with a smile and then winked.

"Oh come on," Jihoon spoke sarcastically and laughed, he hit him in the shoulder.

"Oh, so now you're going to try to get back together with him?" Seungcheol asked with an arrogant smile.

"Maybe, why? does it bother you?" Jihoon replied with a smile.

"No, not at all. How long were you with him? Two months ten years ago? Good luck."

"It was seven months and it was eight years ago."

"I still don't see you two together, but you can try, I suppose." Seungcheol shrugged sarcastically.

Jihoon rolled his eyes and finished putting on his shirt before leaving the room.

"I'm sorry about that, we had a little accident," he said with a smile, approaching them, Soonyoung looked at him confused, but Seokmin simply smiled at him. "What are you doing here?"

"Seokmin came back from New York and asked me for your number, I thought it would be a good surprise to bring him here. Sorry, I didn't know Seungcheol would be here, I thought he was working at this hour."

"No, he asked for the day off, we're going out to dinner with Jeonghan," he explained with a smile, without being able to take his eyes off Seokmin, almost nothing had changed and what had changed was for the better. "Why don't you come with us?"

"Really?"

"Yes, the more the merrier, right?"

Before they knew it the three of them were in Seungcheol's car, going to the restaurant where they had to meet Jeonghan. Soonyoung went in his car so he wouldn't have to pick it up at Jihoon's house. In the car, Seungcheol and Seokmin spoke a lot, because obviously, Seungcheol had to be the perfect boyfriend and get along with his ex-boyfriend. Jihoon had a headache from the number of times he rolled his eyes each time Seungcheol behaved as if Seokmin was his best friend. He was quite relieved when they arrived at the restaurant, as he had foreseen, Jeonghan was already there.

"Weird that you're not an hour late," Seungcheol said with a smile, approaching Jeonghan, who got up from the chair when he saw that they had entered.

"You're lucky we haven't seen each other in three years, otherwise I wouldn't even bother." He replied with a smile and then hugged him.

Everyone sat at the table and Jihoon introduced Jeonghan to Seokmin since he had already met Soonyoung. Jihoon thought the whole thing would be a disaster, but as time went on the five of them were having a lot of fun.

Eventually, Jeonghan and Seungcheol were talking to Soonyoung nonstop, telling him a lot of shameful anecdotes about Jihoon that had happened at college. Soonyoung seemed to be having a lot of fun and mentally writing down a lot of things so that he could bother Jihoon with them later.

But Jihoon was too busy talking to Seokmin to care what they were talking about.

"Uhmmm... Jihoon? Why do I get the feeling that your friend is trying to kill me with his eyes?" Seokmin whispered approaching Jihoon.

"Don't pay attention to him, he's just like that," Jihoon replied with a smile, gesturing for Jeonghan to stop.

"Are you really comfortable with this?"

"What do you mean?" he asked confused.

"Well, the fact that you're with two of your ex-boyfriends."

"Huh? No, Seungcheol and I... We're completely over. Don't worry." He explained calmly.

"Yes, but... If your friend is looking at me like that, I feel like I'm doing something wrong."

"No, don't mind him, it's different because he's been with us since we started dating so he'll always prefer Seungcheol." Seokmin nodded slowly and they continued to talk about anything else.

When he got Seokmin distracted by talking to Soonyoung he gestured to Jeonghan to follow him to the bathroom.

"What is it?" Jeonghan asked, closing the door behind him.

"Why are you behaving like this with Seokmin?"

"Why is he here?"

"He's my boyfriend from high school, he has every right to be here, just like Seungcheol. Okay?"

"That kid doesn't stand a chance compared to Seungcheol, what are you doing?"

"I have every right to try to be happy with someone. This has nothing to do with Seungcheol, I'm not with him, I don't have to do anything he tells me. I really like Seokmin, okay? Don't spoil it just because you know Seungcheol, he's also a really good guy, try to get to know him, you'll see how great he is."

"I don't understand you, Jihoon, seriously," Jihoon sighed and rolled his eyes. "All right, I'll try to give him a chance, but only because you're my friend."

After that conversation, Jeonghan began to talk more calmly with Seokmin and surprisingly everything seemed to be going well. Seokmin began talking to Seungcheol and Jeonghan and everyone was having a good time.

"Jihoon," Soonyoung pointed out, "don't you think Jeonghan is a little too close to Seungcheol?" Soonyoung whispered to him, watching as Jeonghan had an arm interlaced with Seungcheol as they talked and laughed.

Jihoon turned to look at them absently and Soonyoung was surprised at how little he reacted, or honestly, the fact that the smile he had while talking to Seokmin had not suddenly faded.

"Jeonghan and Seungcheol? No, they've always been like that, they're best friends." He shrugged and then turned to Seokmin again.

With laughter and shameful anecdotes, they realized that they had been there for too long and it was late.

"I have to go guys, I'm working early tomorrow," Jeonghan muttered, looking at his phone.

"Yes, actually everyone has to work early, so we have to go."

They left the restaurant and all walked to where the cars had been parked. Soonyoung frowned as Jeonghan and Seungcheol walked quietly with their arms still intertwined, he saw them too close to be "just friends," but Jihoon didn't seem to care, probably because he was too busy with Seokmin. 

"Still worried about Seungcheol and Jeonghan?" Jihoon asked incredulously when Seokmin had to take a call.

"Do you really believe there's nothing going on between them?"

"No, and I can prove it to you. Look, go talk to them, go to where Seungcheol is standing." He pointed to them and pushed Soonyoung in that direction.

"What? Do you want me to get in between them?"

"Yes, come on, go."

"Hi, guys." He spoke when he ran into Seungcheol because Jihoon had pushed him.

"Tired of being the third wheel?" Jeonghan asked with a smile.

"Yeah, a bit." He muttered, running a hand through his hair and standing between the two of them.

Jeonghan continued to talk as they walked, and a moment later intertwined his arm with Soonyoung's without even noticing.

Soonyoung lowered his gaze in surprise as he saw that.

"Oh, I'm sorry, it's a habit." Jeonghan apologized.

"No, it's all right," Soonyoung muttered, Jeonghan laughed and approached him again to continue talking to Seungcheol.

Jihoon stopped laughing at what Seokmin had just said when he realized that they had reached where their parked cars were.

"Do you want us to give you a ride?" he asked Jeonghan.

"No, my boyfriend is coming to get me, don't worry," he answered while looked at his phone, when he lifted his head he found everyone's a surprised expression. "Oh, didn't tell you?"

"No!" Jihoon exclaimed, a little angry that his friend hadn't told him something so important.

"I've been with him for several years, so it's not news, I guess I didn't about it." he explained laughing "See you, you both have to call me regularly now, ok? Now losing contact this time." he hugged Jihoon while saying that and then did the same with Seungcheol, he said goodbye to Soonyoung and Seokmin when he saw a car approaching and then got in.

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow then," Soonyoung spoke, saying goodbye to Jihoon and Seungcheol. "Can I give you a lift?" he asked, turning to look at Seokmin.

"Yeah, I'll see you guys."

As soon as Seokmin and Soonyoung got into the car silence filled the place, Jihoon turned to look at Seungcheol and before he could say anything he got into the car. The entire ride back home was complete silence, that was until they entered the apartment.

"Seokmin's a good guy," Seungcheol spoke while he removed his jacket.

"Yeah? I noticed how you were trying to get along with him."

"Did that bother you?" he asked, noting Jihoon's tone.

"Why would that bother me? You always try to be perfect," he muttered sarcastically.

"Is that a problem?" Seungcheol asked confused.

"Yes, because you always do the same thing, you act like this perfect boyfriend and you're not, and you make me look like the bad guy in the relationship."

"What relationship?"

"You get what I mean!"

"No, I don't know."

"You make it look like I'm the bad guy in the relationship because I ended it, when in fact you were the one who left me."

"No, I'm supporting you."

"Exactly! Who the fuck does that? Which person supports his ex-boyfriend to go back to another ex-boyfriend?"

"What do you want, Jihoon? Do you want me to be selfish?"

"That wouldn't be so bad."

"Well, then why the fuck wasn't I on the list?" Jihoon sighed at that.

"Because I didn't want to see you again. You said you didn't want to see me again, so why are you like this now?"

"Jihoon! Are you listening to yourself?"

"Yes, I'm listening perfectly. Are you listening to me?"

"No! I don't understand you Jihoon, you don't want me to support you because then I'm too perfect, but when I ask you why I wasn't on the list you tell me it's my fault. What exactly do you want me to do?"

"Tell me what you actually think."

"Why do you want to get back with him and not me?" Seungcheol asked suddenly.

"Do you want to get back together?"

"That's not what I asked you."

"All right, I want to go back to him because he's attractive, he's got a company, he's ambitious," he started talking as he defiantly approached Seungcheol, "He treats me well, his family loves me, he was my first love, my first time, and best of all, our relationship didn't end badly." He finished talking, looking at him with rage in his eyes.

"That's it?" Seungcheol answered with an arrogant smile "I can make a longer list of the reasons you were with me."

"Exactly,  **_were_ ** . I want to get back to Seokmin, you can't do anything to change my mind.

"Really Jihoon? It was eight years ago."

"And it was three years ago for us! What difference does it make? If I have to be with the last person I was, you definitely wouldn't be the one, I would have to call the fucking tree I spent two years with, for your information."

"What?" Seungcheol asked surprised, "Two years? Did you start dating a year after we broke up?"

"What did you expect? For me to sit and cry for the rest of my life?"

"It doesn't matter! Do you really think that after eight years everything will be exactly the same?"

"What are you talking about?!"

"Are you that blind, Jihoon?" Seungcheol asked in complete disbelief, "Didn't you notice how he was looking at Soonyoung?"

"You really have to make this up so I forget about Seokmin?"

"Jihoon, I'm not making anything up, I don't want you to get your hopes up."

"All you want is for me to get back together with you, that's why you're telling me this! It's not going to happen!"

"He doesn't love you, Jihoon!"

"And you do?!"

Seungcheol was silent for a moment and quickly placed both hands on Jihoon's cheeks, he drew their faces closer to kiss him. Jihoon opened his eyes in surprise and stood completely still as he noticed those familiar lips gently pressing against his own. Seungcheol moved away from him shortly after, Jihoon looked at him still surprised and unresponsive. When he finally reacted the first thing he did was slap him across the face.

Seungcheol looked at the floor and put one hand on his cheek, which was probably red by now.

"Don't ever do that again," he said with no emotion before turning around to walk to his room.

"Yes, Jihoon. I still love you," Seungcheol suddenly answered his question, stopping Jihoon immediately. "I haven't stopped doing it since we broke up. I agreed to do this because I thought I would have a second chance with you, because I didn't do it right the first time, because it wasn't our time to be together. I want to help you with what I didn't help you when we were younger, I want to change what I did."

"You can't change the past," Jihoon muttered without turning around to look at him.

"I'm trying."

"Well, stop it, it's not going to work."

"Give me another chance, Jihoon, let me make amends."

Jihoon closed his fists and lowered his head slightly.

"No." he finally said, he went into his room and slammed the door shut.

Jihoon didn't want to get back together with him, he knew how it would end, he'd already tried it once and it ended in catastrophe. It took him a long time to overcome his break-up with Seungcheol, he thought he was the right one and in the end, he wasn't, he was so heartbroken and he didn't want to open the wound again.

He slid against the door until he fell to the ground and felt the tears wet his cheeks, because the worst thing was, that he also still loved him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes, angst, finally we have a moving plot :) i WILL be posting more regularly so please expect that and don't forget that feedback is always appreciated :)))


	7. Chapter 7

Seungcheol was right, it had been eight years since he'd been with Seokmin, but that didn't mean that they couldn't be together again. Unfortunately, he was too busy working to go out with him, but he could get some rest when Seokmin would sent him a message and they talked for a little bit. He was waiting for the weekend to arrive so that he could have some time off and go out with him, he hoped that Seokmin wouldn't be too busy and so they could go out to dinner because he was getting tired of spending so much time with Seungcheol. He couldn't wait until he signed the contract to get the promotion already. 

For some reason, he had been strangely happy the last few days, probably because he reunited with Seokmin, or because it was almost over and he would never have to see Seungcheol again. After what happened the two of them had been quite awkward around each other. Seungcheol was getting up later so that he wouldn't have to see Jihoon for breakfast and he would leave the food prepared for Jihoon just to go to his room to eat, so he hardly saw him at all. 

He got up from his chair and walked outside his office with a few papers in his hands, he needed to finish a couple of things before going home, he thought about preparing something for dinner if he arrived before Seungcheol, maybe he could see a movie, he was going home earlier than usual. He walked to Soonyoung's office to ask for paperwork that he had to finish before leaving, he opened the door absentmindedly as he looked at the documents he had in his hands. 

"Soon, have you finished the...?" he stopped abruptly when he saw Seokmin sitting in Soonyoung's seat and Soonyoung leaning on his desk right in front of him.

They both turned around to look at Jihoon in surprise, he knew perfectly well that they were kissing a second before he entered the room.

"Jihoon don't..." Soonyoung got up from his desk and looked at him worried but Jihoon said nothing, he just turned around and closed door.

He went home before Soonyoung or Seokmin looked for him to talk to him. He felt devastated and didn't want to speak to either of them, because he wouldn't believe any of the explanations they planned to give him. He really thought he would have a chance with Seokmin, none of his relationships had been successful and he felt as if Seokmin was his last chance. He was the only guy in his life who only had eyes for him, with the exception of Seungcheol, but he ended the relationship on good terms with Seokmin. He couldn't believe he'd been fooled again. They weren't actually together, but he was still hurt by the whole situation, he thought he could be with Seokmin again, have a stable relationship. But everything was shattered, after all, Seungcheol was right, no one could stand him. He came home and opened the door, took off his shoes and jacket feeling like complete shit.

"You've came back early," he heard Seungcheol talking from the kitchen and his steps. "I thought I'd have more time to..." Seungcheol stopped talking and stopped in the hallway when he saw Jihoon. "What's wrong?" he asked him softly as he stepped forward.

Jihoon lifted his gaze from the floor and directed it toward Seungcheol, he sighed without being able to utter a word, feeling his lower lip tremble. He hated the feeling of weakness, but he couldn't help it, and so he began to cry.

"Jihoon..." Seungcheol murmured as he approached him and wrapped his arms around him.

Jihoon rested his head on Seungcheol's chest and continued to cry.

"What's the matter?" he asked him, caressing his hair in an attempt to calm him because he knew that Jihoon never cried and if he did he couldn't stop.

"You were right..." he said while sobbing and grabbing onto him "No one can stand me... that's why my relationships never last...."

"What? Jihoon no, that's not true." Seungcheol backed away a little bit to look at him and wiped some of his tears away with his thumbs.

"But you said it, and you were right."

"I said it when I was angry, we both said stupid things. You called me useless with no future, but that doesn't mean I didn't get a job teaching at a university. Just because I said that doesn't mean you can't find someone." Jihoon was quiet and looked down at the floor as he sniffed. "What happened to make you think that?"

"Seokmin... I caught him kissing Soonyoung." Seungcheol opened his eyes surprised when he heard that.

"Jihoon, that doesn't mean anyone can stand you, why do you think that?"

"Because it's true."

"No, no, Jihoon it's not true," Seungcheol whispered, hugging him again before leaving a kiss on his forehead. 

Seungcheol knew that Jihoon was completely devastated, so he told him to change his suit into something more comfortable while he cooked dinner. Soon Jihoon was sitting on the couch, huddled against Seungcheol as he sobbed, the TV could be heard in the background and Seungcheol was distracted stroking his hair slowly. He knew that Jihoon needed his time to vent and then he would forget about the problem, but first, he had to let it all go, and thank God it was sadness and not rage. 

Jihoon raised his head in surprise when he heard the doorbell. 

"I'll go, don't get up," Seungcheol said calmly as he got up to go open the door, he was not too surprised to see Seokmin on the other side.

Seokmin did not seem happy that Seungcheol had opened the door. 

"Can I... May I speak to Jihoon?"

"This is not a good time to talk to him."

"Please, I have to explain to him..."

"Explain what? That you came here only to give him hope and then go with his best friend? Because let me tell you, it doesn't sound very good."

"No, please, just let me talk to him."

"It's not going to happen. Go away."

"Please..."

"No! You hurt him, there's no excuse, I don't give a shit about your intentions. Don't go near Jihoon, especially now."

"But..."

Seungcheol closed the door before Seokmin could finish the sentence, he sighed and walked to the living room, he stopped when he heard his phone buzz, he went into the kitchen but realized it was Jihoon's. He grabbed it and looked at the screen absentmindedly, Jihoon had an incoming call from Soonyoung, Seungcheol rejected it without thinking too much about it and the screen showed that he had five missed calls from Soonyoung and three from Seokmin. He silenced the phone and returned to the living room, where Jihoon sat on the sofa with his eyes and nose red from crying so much, he was looking at the door. 

"Thank you." He muttered when he saw Seungcheol enter the living room.

"It's alright," Seungcheol whispered, leaving a kiss on top of his head and then sitting on the couch to wrap his arms around him.

Jihoon settled down and despite not crying anymore he stayed near Seungcheol, seeking comfort. They remained quiet for a while until Seungcheol finally opened his mouth to speak. 

"Do you want to see a movie?"

"It depends on which movie," Jihoon muttered, rubbing his eyes. 

"What do you wanna  watch?" Jihoon simply shrugged.

Seungcheol thought about it for a moment, he knew perfectly well that if he said the wrong film Jihoon would just say that he wasn't feeling like it and then go to sleep, it wasn't good for Jihoon to go to sleep when he was still sad. Finally, he came up with a movie that Jihoon would probably like to watch to cheer him up, so he hummed the melody of one of the songs from the movie that had occurred to him. Jihoon laughed as soon as he heard Seungcheol.

"I haven't seen it in so long."

"Neither have I," Seungcheol muttered smiling.

_ 'Because it reminds me too much of you,' _ they both thought without saying anything.

Jihoon got up and walked to his room. 

"I still have it somewhere." He explained as he went to look for it. 

Seungcheol said nothing and waited for Jihoon to come back with the DVD so they could watch it. It was probably why their friends made fun of them during their college years because they had both seen that movie hundreds of times and sometimes listened to the songs non-stop. Because unfortunately they both had mothers who had grown up in the seventies and when a movie came out based on the songs they heard when they were teenagers the two of them were forced to watch it so many times that they ended up liking it too. So after three years without having seen it the both of them were huddled on the couch while watching  _ Mamma mia _ even though they probably knew all the dialogues and songs by heart.

As soon as the film was over Seungcheol turned to look at Jihoon with a smile to say something but fell silent when he realized that he had fallen deeply asleep on his shoulder. He laughed slightly and moved very slowly so as not to wake him up. He turned off the TV and picked him up in bridal style to take him to his bed, fortunately, he had already changed into his pyjamas, so he simply covered him and turned off the light in his room. He hoped that Jihoon could wake up in a better mood the next morning because he really didn't like to see him sad.

* * *

 

Jihoon opened his eyes slowly when he heard a noise that woke him up, he looked at the clock, it was three o'clock in the morning. He looked around confused and realized that he was in his room, Seungcheol probably brought him there when the film was finished. He frowned, got comfortable again and closed his eyes, but opened them again as soon as he heard a noise. He got up from his bed when he finally realized what that noise was, he walked slowly, half-asleep, and left his room, went to the next room and opened the door. He walked slowly to Seungcheol's bed as he watched him move relentlessly in his sleep. He lifted his hands and shook him slightly to awaken him. 

"Seungcheol, wake up, it's just a nightmare." Seungcheol opened his eyes suddenly and woke up gasping, he looked around the room and then at Jihoon. "It was just a nightmare," Jihoon repeated, still half asleep, Seungcheol didn't say anything. 

Jihoon approached the bedside table and opened the drawer to take out a box of pills, he grabbed the bottle of water that Seungcheol kept on his bedside table and opened it. 

"Open your mouth." He said to him after removing one of the tablets from the plastic. 

Seungcheol obeyed and Jihoon put it in his mouth and then gave him the bottle of water, when he swallowed it he returned the bottle to Jihoon, who closed it and left it again on the bedside table. 

"That's it, go back to sleep," Jihoon muttered, placing the cover over him so that he could go back to sleep.

He got up from the edge of the bed when he heard Seungcheol's deep breaths, and returned to his bed to sleep peacefully. The next morning he woke up without feeling that he had to ignore Seungcheol, he assumed that after everything he did for him the night before he could forget the confession, the kiss and the slap. That was in the past, right now he was really angry with Seokmin. He left his room and walked to the kitchen dragging his feet because of how tired he was, he could smell the toast from the living room so he knew Seungcheol was already awake. He came in and sat at the kitchen table, smiled as Seungcheol left the toast and coffee in front of him. 

"Good morning," he said calmly. 

"Good morning," said Seungcheol, sitting in front of him to start eating as well. 

"Did you sleep well?" Jihoon asked, after taking a sip of his coffee. 

"Yes," there was a short pause before Seungcheol muttered the continuation as he looked at his cup nervously. "Hey... Thank you... For last night."

"Don't worry, it's alright," Jihoon answered shrugging. "Don't forget to take the pill next time." Seungcheol nodded slowly when he heard that.

"Are you going to talk to Soonyoung?"

"No, I think I'll try to ignore him as much as I can." Seungcheol laughed when he heard that.

"He was calling you a lot yesterday, I think you should at least listen to his part of the story, maybe it wasn't what it looked like."

"If you've got your tongue in the mouth of the guy you're supposed to try to put me together with, no matter where you look at it, it doesn't look good," Jihoon replied with a smile, making Seungcheol laugh. 

"Just... Talk to him."

"Alright." Jihoon rolled his eyes. 

They had breakfast together in silence until Jihoon had to get up to go and change. He always had one coffee at home for breakfast and then went to get another at a coffee shop because he knew he would need more during the day. Although he would have preferred to fall asleep on his desk rather than decide to go to that stupid café and meet Seokmin there. He turned around as soon as he saw him in line and headed for his car quickly. 

"Jihoon, wait," Seokmin called him, he saw him. 

Jihoon behaved as if he didn't hear him and continued to walk to his car quickly, but Seokmin followed him anyway. 

"Seokmin, seriously, I don't wanna talk, go away."

"Jihoon, please listen to me." Jihoon stopped and turned to look at him, fed up of all of that. 

"What?! What do you want?"

"Please let me explain myself."

"Well, go ahead," Jihoon answered, folding his arms, knowing that any explanation that he gave him wouldn't believe it.

"I know Soonyoung may have told you that I came back to pick things up with you, I also wanted to come back to see if we could be together again. I liked you a lot, Jihoon."

"Let me guess, you don't like me anymore?"

"No, that's not it. It's only been a few days since I've been back, I can't draw that conclusion when we haven't even had a real date."

"Then why?"

"Because I can't try to get back together with you when you're in love with someone else." He spoke as if it were obvious. 

"What? What are you talking about?" Jihoon looked at him confused. 

"Seungcheol." Jihoon frowned, not understanding why he spoke as if everything he was saying was obvious.

"I'm not in love with Seungcheol." He shook his head, completely sure of himself, but Seokmin just laughed. 

"Yeah, sure. I think you want to get back together with one of your exes, but not exactly to me." 

"Seokmin, Seungcheol and I broke up years ago, I'm not getting back with me."

"Maybe you don't want to get back with him, but that doesn't mean that you don't love me."

"How can you be so sure of all this?"

"Jihoon it's obvious! When we went to dinner the other day I was wondering why I was even there." Jihoon frowned at the sound of that. "I just accepted that I couldn't be with you, but Soonyoung came to pick me up at the airport and he took me to your house when I just asked him for your phone number. We've been spending quite a lot of time together and I like him a lot."

Jihoon breathed out a sigh at the sound of that and unfolded his arms, he looked away and then looked back at Seokmin. 

"You weren't just playing with me, but with Soonyoung as well."

"I'm sorry Jihoon, seriously, I was going to talk to you about that but you were really busy with work and you saw us before I could do anything about it."

Jihoon rolled his eyes and thought for a moment, he'd cried so much and he wasn't even sure if he'd cried for Seokmin, having him in front of him, rejecting him, didn't hurt him. It didn't hurt him to hear the fact that Seokmin didn't want to be with him, he'd been hurt by the fact that Seungcheol was right and that no one really wanted to be with him. It didn't specifically bother him that Seokmin didn't want to be with him, it bothered him that he was with Soonyoung, his friend who was much more fun and easy to be around. Seungcheol was right, who would want to be with someone so grumpy?

"If you do something like that to Soonyoung you won't live to tell." He warned him by raising a hand, making Seokmin laugh slightly.

"I'll buy you a cup of coffee, what do you say?"

Jihoon rolled his eyes and accepted with a nod, because he really needed that coffee and after crying for an hour the night before he didn't feel any sadness about the whole thing. Seungcheol was right, he just had to let it all go and then he'd forget about it, he wished that had worked when Seungcheol left him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry it's such a really short chapter but I wanted to update it on jicheol anniversary lol i hope you liked, comment whatever you thought about it :)


	8. Chapter 8

Jihoon ran a hand through his hair and walked to the kitchen letting out a loud yawn, it was Sunday and it was the only day he was allowed to sleep in. He missed being able to sleep more hours, but he also liked his job so he didn't have a choice. He was surprised to see the light on the kitchen was on, Seungcheol usually woke up later than he did. He ran a hand over his face, trying to wake himself up, he looked up when he entered the kitchen. Seungcheol was in front of the kitchen island, he had a plate full of pancakes and was decorating the small tower with cream, he raised his head in surprise when he heard Jihoon enter the kitchen.

"Oh, I didn't know you were going to get up so early," he exclaimed, standing up to look at him, clearly nervous, he smiled immediately before speaking again. "Happy birthday."

Jihoon opened his eyes in surprise and looked at him for a moment without saying anything, he completely forgot about that.

"Is it today?" he asked frowning.

"Yes," Seungcheol replied with a smile.

Jihoon grimaced and approached to sit on a stool in front of the kitchen island, he pulled up the plate of pancakes Seungcheol had made for him and began to eat.

"Do you like it?" Seungcheol asked with a smile, Jihoon couldn't help but smile and nod.

"There's nothing to drink, I was going down to buy orange juice, can you wait for a minute?"

"Yes, it's all right."

Seungcheol smiled when he heard his answer and left quickly to go to the store near his house. Jihoon heard the silence that had suddenly invaded the house and looked down at the pile of pancakes he had made while chewing. He smiled slightly as he remembered the image of Seungcheol congratulating him with a plate of pancakes, he always did that when they were still together. For some reason that he couldn't understand his eyes began to fill with tears and soon he could see the drops wetting the counter. He had never thought it was important to celebrate his birthday, so he didn't usually say it out loud, almost no one knew when his birthday was. Especially since it was at the end of November, everyone would be working like crazy, trying to finish everything so they could get home to their family for the holidays before the end of the quarter. In the two years he was with Mingyu they didn't celebrate it, the first year was because he hadn't told him so Mingyu didn't know and the second one was because he was on a business trip.

He felt a knot in hi throat when he realized that Seungcheol was the only person who had really bothered to do something for him on his birthday even when Jihoon didn't want to. When they were in college he looked at his student card to see his birthday when they weren't even dating yet and he insisted on doing something for his birthday because 'it was an important date'.

He couldn't understand why he was crying, Seungcheol just made him pancakes. He realized that Seungcheol's image of congratulating him with pancakes reminded him too much of when they were dating, and the fact that he couldn't go back to that time destroyed him. He rubbed his eyes to stop crying and put another spoonful in his mouth, he was pathetic.

He was frightened when he heard the front door open, he wiped his tears quickly, trying not to look like he was crying, Seungcheol entered the kitchen and put his hands on his shoulders to squeeze them lightly in a friendly gesture.

"What do you want to do today?" he asked with a smile as he went to get a glass to pour the juice.

"Nothing." Jihoon shrugged.

"That's not an answer."

"I don't know, I don't want to do anything."

"It's still not an answer," said Seungcheol, his elbows resting on the counter. "What do you say we go to the movies? I know there's a movie you want to see." Jihoon looked at him with a frown.

"You don't like horror movies."

"But you love to see how frightened I get." Jihoon laughed at that.

"Okay, we can go see a movie." Jihoon surrendered, rolling his eyes.

"Great."

"What time?"

"In the afternoon, do you want to do something in the meantime?"

"No, I just wanted to get some rest." Jihoon muttered as he continued to chew calmly, Seungcheol laughed and rolled his eyes.

He knew he couldn't force him to do anything because it was his birthday, the whole point of celebrating his birthday was to be able to do what he wanted. So Jihoon didn't even take off his pyjamas and sat on the sofa while he watched a TV show and ate everything on the fridge. Seungcheol obviously did the same thing, since he helped him with what happened with Seokmin the two were more comfortable around each other. Jihoon explained to Seungcheol that Seokmin apologized so when Soonyoung appeared in his apartment Seungcheol didn't want to kill him, which was good, because Seungcheol was scary when someone hurt Jihoon.

 

In any case, the two had to get ready in the afternoon to go to the cinema as Seungcheol had promised. They drove in Seungcheol's car to the mall where they usually went to watch movies, he hadn't been to the movies in a while, he assumed that lately he had been too busy with work to afford to have that kind of days without doing anything. So he was pretty excited to finally do something, probably also because it was with Seungcheol.

Jihoon walked absent-mindedly to the cinema, but Seungcheol stopped him grabbing his arm.

"I have to go to the bathroom, I'm going in there for a moment," Seungcheol explained, pointing to a restaurant in the mall.

"Why don't you go in the cinema?"

"I don't like going out in the middle of the movie, it'll only take a moment."

"Okay, let's go." Jihoon muttered, gesturing for him to come in, he'd probably ask for some Coke while he waited for it and then drink it in the cinema.

He got completely distracted while thinking about the movie they were going to see, so he didn't realize that there were too many people sitting at a table, he only noticed that little detail when he heard people screaming:

"Surprise!" he opened his eyes in surprise when he saw that many of his friends were sitting at a table, looking at him with a smile.

He turned to look at Seungcheol in surprise, who looked at him with a smile.

"Happy birthday." he said, smiling, and then grabbed his arm and brought him closer to the table.

He had never had a surprise party, and obviously Seungcheol was going to be the first person to organize one for him. He completely forgot about the film and laughed with all his friends as they talked. Even as a teenager he didn't celebrate his birthdays that way so he wasn't used to it. Seungcheol had invited all his friends from work, Jeonghan and her boyfriend were also there and, surprisingly, Seokmin too.

"Yeah, but don't drink too much because tomorrow we have work." Soonyoung warned them with laughter.

"Ok, Jihoon is our boss, I think he can forgive us for one day." Seungkwan laughed after he said that.

"Then Soonyoung is the only one who has to get up early tomorrow." Chan laughed.

"And Wonwoo, he's not here, he's not free just because he's our friend." Vernon joked.

"Oh, right, he had something to do with his boyfriend, they're coming later." Jihoon nodded slowly as he ate.

He turned his head when he heard Jeonghan talk to him, he came with his boyfriend, Joshua, who seemed like a very nice guy, apparently they had been together for a long time.

"When did you meet?" he asked Joshua when Seungcheol and Jeonghan started talking.

"A few years ago, Jeonghan had this antique shop downtown, I work in a museum and I wanted to buy some things for a collection." he explained calmly with a smile.

He remembered that Jeonghan wanted to have his own small business, so he studied the same career as Jihoon, he also knew that he was passionate about old things, but he would never have imagined that he would end up opening an antique shop.

"Did you finally manage to buy the relics?"

"Yes, it was difficult, but I got the objects for the collection plus a date." Jihoon laughed at that.

"Wonwoo!" Seungkwan greeted him cheerfully when he saw that he had just entered the restaurant.

Jihoon turned with a smile to greet him and his heart stopped when he saw that familiar face right in front of him.

"Mingyu?" he asked breathlessly.

"Jihoon..." Mingyu muttered, clearly confused.

Jihoon turned to look at Seungcheol for a moment and then at Seokmin, he could see the confused look that everybody had as they saw the situation, except for Soonyoung, who seemed to be almost dead, understanding his situation.

Jihoon rose from his seat, he couldn't simply act as if all that wasn't important. He approached Wonwoo and greeted him with a smile.

"Why don't you sit down and start eating? I'll be right back," he said, stepping forward, wiped his smile away and gesturing for Mingyu to come out. "What are you doing here?" he asked when they were outside.

"I only came for the birthday of one of my boyfriend's friends, I didn't know it was going to be you."

"Boyfriend? We broke up a month ago, I'm glad you got over it so quickly." he spoke in a sarcastic tone.

"You left me. You kicked me out of the house, actually. Do you expect me to sit and cry?"

"After two years of relationship? Yeah, maybe."

"Wonwoo told me that your boyfriend was the one to prepare this surprise party, can you explain that to me?"

"No, he's not my boyfriend," he whispered as he ran a hand through his hair, he could see the confusion on Mingyu's face. "Do you remember the promotion they were going to give me?"

"Yes."

"Well, apparently you were one of the reasons they were going to give it to me."

"What?"

"The company wants someone in the position who supports minorities, and I fall into that category because I'm gay, but I can't have the position if I'm not in an established relationship, so I''m not a typical gay stereotype or whatever. So I'm lying to the company, telling them I have a boyfriend, when I'm actually living with one of my ex-boyfriends."

"Why didn't you call me?" he asked confused.

"Would you have helped me? You'd rather burn down the company than help me get the promotion you didn't want me to get in the first place."

"And don't you think that makes me right? The company sucks, they don't even want you for your skills, they're giving you a job for a stupid stereotype."

"You didn't know that, you yelled at me for an hour telling me to quit the job I want."

"And I was right! Now they're fucking with you."

"Does it matter? I'm a businessman, I'd pretend to be heterosexual to get that fucking job, if that means I can do whatever I want later. You don't understand because you don't know anything about my work, I need to be cold-blooded if I want to achieve my goals, asshole. Not everything can be good and I can't change to a less important company just because 'they don't believe in my ideals', I'm not a coward."

"You can't..."

Wonwoo frowned as he watched Mingyu and Jihoon speak. They pointed at each other accusatorily and he could see that they were arguing, they could see them clearly since the doors were made of glass. Everyone was watching their conversation when they couldn't even hear what they were arguing about.

"I didn't know they knew each other." Wonwoo spoke finally.

"It's his ex-boyfriend." Soonyoung sighed, everyone turned to look at him surprised.

"What?"

"Yes, they broke up..." Soonyoung fell silent immediately when Seungcheol gave him a nudge "I don't remember, a long time ago, I think I saw a picture of him, I'm not sure, Jihoon told me, I never knew him, he's been with Seungcheol for a long time...." he shut up again when Seungcheol gestured again to stop talking.

Everyone looked at Soonyoung in amazement but no one asked any questions, Seokmin burst out laughing and Seungcheol rolled his eyes to look back at Jihoon and Mingyu who seemed to have stopped arguing. Jihoon was speaking to him more calmly.

"Don't you ever tell them that this whole thing with Seungcheol is a lie, okay? The less people know about this, the better." he warned him by lifting a finger when he had finally brought Mingyu to his senses.

"Wait, Seungcheol? Are you pretending to be Seungcheol's boyfriend?"

"Yes," Jihoon answered, rolling his eyes.

"You can't be with Seungcheol again."

"I'm not with him, we're just pretending."

"Still! What were you thinking?"

"It wasn't my idea! It was the only option I had."

"Don't feel bad if all this goes wrong in the end."

"It won't go wrong if you keep your mouth shut, so don't even think about saying anything about our relationship. As far as you're concerned I never broke up with Seungcheol and we didn't break up a month ago."

"All right, all right."

"Good." Jihoon nodded and feigned to get back into the restaurant.

"But Jihoon..." Mingyu held him by the arm, Jihoon looked at him confused "This is all just about your work, right? You're not going back with Seungcheol?"

"No, I'm not getting back with him, don't worry."

"Good, because..."

"I know! You don't have to remind me, I'm not stupid. Let's go before your boyfriend thinks it's you I'm getting back with." he rolled his eyes and opened the door to enter the restaurant.

He realized that everyone started talking immediately when they saw that they had entered the restaurant again. He tried to ignore that and sat back in the chair he had previously sat in. Fortunately everyone spoke again and forgot about the situation, Jihoon was distracted when Chan turned to talk to Vernon. He took the glass to his lips and watched as Mingyu and Wonwoo talked calmly with Joshua, both with a smile. Jeonghan had started talking to Soonyoung and Seokmin, the latter had an arm around Soonyoung's shoulders and a wide smile on his face.

He turned to look at Seungcheol, who stood beside him. The two looked at each other for a second before nodding and laughing out loud at the whole situation.

"So your ex-boyfriend?" he asked with a smile.

"Yes, the one I broke up with a month ago. The reason I'm doing all this nonsense." he muttered, rolling his eyes and bringing the glass to his lips, making sure no one was listening to them.

"Three ex-boyfriends on your birthday and you still haven't had a panic attack? I'm proud of you Jihoon." Seungcheol spoke with a condescending smile, Jihoon sighed.

"Please, you think I'm that weak? All you have to do is call your dear friend Chanyeol and we'll have a meeting and everything." Seungcheol laughed at that.

"I haven't talked to him in a long time, and he didn't really want to see you the last time I called."

"I know, he has it against me, he was the asshole that gave Soonyooung your number. Otherwise you wouldn't be here."

"Then I'll have to thank him." Seungcheol replied with a smile, Jihoon laughed and rolled his eyes.

"God, don't even think about inviting him home because I'll cut your head off, I don't want to see him again."

"Don't be boring, for old times' sake." Jihoon laughed and ignored him.

Chanyeol was his college roommate and they had been sleeping together for several months when Jihoon was single, they didn't even make it official, but everybody knew there was something between them. Until he met Seungcheol and they started dating, Seungcheol spent a lot of time in Jihoon's room and for some unknown reason the two had become very good friends. They had definitely joined forces to humiliate Jihoon during his final college years.

"Hey, thanks for doing this, seriously." Jihoon muttered with a smile.

"It's nothing Jihoon, almost everyone was surprised when I told them it was your birthday. So I guess you still have that habit of hoping people just don't know your birthday."

"I don't think it's important." Jihoon replied with a smile as he shrugged.

"For me it is,  it's a special day."

Jihoon lowered his head and laughed slightly as he heard Seungcheol say that, remembering how many times he had said it when they were together, he looked at him with a smile before answering.

"I suppose so."


	9. Chapter 9

"I'm back!" Jihoon shouted when he came home, he took off his shoes and jacket but heard no answer, "Seungcheol?" he walked around the house but couldn't find him, so he assumed he was sleeping in his room, "Seungcheol, it's almost..." he fell silent when he saw that there was no one in the room and frowned confusedly.

He shrugged and assumed he went out to buy something to eat. He went to the kitchen and prepared dinner. When he was already sitting at the kitchen table eating he heard the front door open.

"Jihoon?" he heard him calling from the hallway as he took off his shoes.

"In the kitchen," he replied absentmindedly as he looked at his phone and ate.

He looked up when he heard Seungcheol enter the kitchen, and was surprised to see him wearing a suit.

"Sorry I'm late, I had a teachers' meeting." he explained while he left his jacket on the back of the chair, untied his tie and then went over to serve himself food.

Jihoon followed his movements with his gaze, it felt completely strange to see that image of Seungcheol. At no point would it have crossed his mind that Seungcheol could be working late, those weren't two things that he related. It was usually the other way around, Jihoon was late and Seungcheol was waiting for him with the food. He realized that this was the first time he had been hit by the reality that Seungcheol had a stable job and was working the same hours as him. He looked at him when he sat in front of him to eat, he looked good in that suit, he wasn't used to seeing him that way.

"How was work?" Jihoon asked him, because it was a normal question for many people, but it was important for Jihoon to ask that, he would have never said that three years ago, because the answer was never good, Seungcheol always had a bad time at work, it was a habit, so he couldn't keep the jobs for more than two days.

"Well," he replied absently as he ate and Jihoon smiled unconsciously "I'm exhausted, I've had to give two extra classes and then go to this teachers' meeting, a complete waste of time, I could have been correcting exams, I've got a lot going on. What about you?"

"Well, same as always, you know, meetings, paperwork... Nothing interesting. How's college? I haven't been here in a long time." Seungcheol frowned confused when he noticed that Jihoon was making conversation when he never really did. 

"Well, it's the same honestly, there are a lot of teachers who used to teach us."

"What do you teach?" he asked while he ate. 

"This year? Macroeconomics and tax system."

"You hated those." Jihoon grinned and leaned back. 

"I hated the teachers of those subjects, but I was doing economics it would be bad if I didn't like the basics" Seungcheol replied laughing. "No, but I like teaching it."

"I thought you needed to do a course or something to teach at the university."

"Actually, yes, but they only made me do the final exam and I passed it so they let me teach." 

"Why?"

"I didn't tell you? A few months after we broke up I started working in a restaurant and our econometrics teacher went to have dinner there once, Mr. Kang, remember him? The one with the toupee." Jihoon laughed at that. 

"Yes, I remember."

"He asked me what I was doing working there, I explained what was happening to me and he said that he thought it was crazy that a student with grades like mine was in a situation like that. He explained to me that soon the exams would be taken to teach at the university and that he could slip in my file so that I could do it, to try my luck. I passed it and started teaching there." Jihoon nodded, impressed by what he just told him. 

"Who would say that having a good relationship with one of the teachers would work out so well for you." 

"Yes," Seungcheol replied with a smile.

Jihoon didn't expect that Seungcheol would like teaching so much, since it wasn't one of the things he wanted to do, but he returned home always with a smile, something that never happened before. He found himself thinking of it when he was in his office, he had his head elsewhere all day and was having a hard time concentrating on what was in front of him. He lifted his head when he heard a knock on the door. 

 "What do you need?" he asked tired when he saw Wonwoo. 

"Do you want me to finish those documents I gave you yesterday? I'm leaving in an hour, so you'll have them for tomorrow."

"Yes, of course, here, there was almost nothing to change." Jihoon muttered, grabbing some papers next to him and giving them to him. 

Wonwoo nodded and left Jihoon's office to walk to his. It didn't take him long to finish it, Jihoon had done more than he was supposed to do, typical of Jihoon, he was so busy with work that he forgot he had to stop at some point. 

He finished the documents and went to the printer room to scan them, he looked at his cell phone while he waited for them to finish scanning, Mingyu had sent him a message telling him that he was waiting for him outside. He grabbed the papers, left the room, then sent the files to Jihoon and finally left the building and went home. 

He greeted Mingyu with a smile as he sat next to him in the car. 

"You didn't tell me you were giving me a ride home."

"It was on my way so it wasn't a problem," Mingyu replied with a smile. "Besides, I've barely seen the building you work in."

"Well, it's not something you did with Jihoon." Wonwoo laughed. 

"Yes, he stayed here much later than you." Mingyu spoke with a smile as he started the car, Wonwoo frowned at that. 

"What? I didn't know you were with him while he was working for the company, I thought that Seungcheol and Jihoon had been dating for six years, but Jihoon has only been working for company four, hasn't he?" Mingyu froze when he heard that. 

"Oh sorry, I got confused."

"Were you with him in college?"

"Y-yes."

"You're lying to me," Wonwoo blamed him by turning to look at him. "You told me that during college 'you didn't believe in relationships' and you just had one night stands."

"Well, I..." Mingyu started talking, but Wonwoo didn't believe anything he was saying to him anymore. 

"How long ago did you break up with Jihoon?"

"A month ago." Wonwoo frowned and looked at him in completely confused. 

"What?"

"He's lying, Seungcheol is his ex-boyfriend, but the promotion they're going to give him requires that he's in an established relationship, so when we broke up Jihoon had to look for someone to lie and the best option was Seungcheol," Wonwoo looked at him for a moment with his eyes open in surprise and then opened the car door to get out. "No, Wonwoo..." Mingyu tried to stop him and also got out of the car, closing the door behind him "Where are you going?"

"To talk to Jihoon, he can't be lying like that. Much less accept a position that requires something so stupid." Mingyu opened his mouth to stop him but then thought for a moment. 

"Yeah that's a pretty good point."

The two entered the building and Wonwoo rushed to put his hand on the door of the elevator and stop it, the two entered and were surprised to see Seungcheol in the elevator. 

"What are you doing here?" Wonwoo asked confused. 

"Jihoon, he sent me a message to come and get him, but he doesn't answer my messages, so I was going to look for him in his office," Seungcheol replied calmly. "What about you?" he asked Mingyu.

"Wonwoo heard about your farce and wants to talk to Jihoon so that he doesn't accept the job, he doesn't think it's ethical." Seungcheol looked at them surprised and thought for a second. 

"Well, you're not wrong," when he said that the elevator doors opened and the three of them came out, Wonwoo was the first to come out because he knew where Jihoon's office was. 

But before they could get there they ran into Soonyoung. 

"Where are you going? I thought you were done for the day."

"I'm going to talk to Jihoon."

"He's busy, what do you want to say to him?" he muttered distractedly while he looked at the papers in his hands. 

"Don't let him accept the promotion if they're asking him to lie about something so stupid," Soonyoung looked up surprised when he heard that. 

"Can you keep it down?"

"Oh, you knew it too? And why are you letting him do something so stupid?" he sighed and looked at Seungcheol and Mingyu, who seemed to agree with what Wonwoo just said. 

"Follow me." he pointed to them and started to walk through the hall. 

Finally they reached an office and Soonyoung opened the door to let them in.

"Sit down." as soon as Soonyoung sat down in front of his desk Wonwoo began to name all the reasons he thought it was complete nonsense that they were doing that, Mingyu and Seungcheol followed.

"Do you know the average age of the candidates for the position they are going to give Jihoon?" Soonyoung abruptly interrupted them, and they all shut up and slowly shook their heads, "Between forty and forty-five years old." Soonyoung continued to speak, winning the surprise in everyone's face.

"What?"

"You can't even begin to imagine how important that position is to the company. Not only that, but we are the leading company in our competition, you won't find a better one in all of South Korea, and I'm not even counting the ranking of Asia. It's amazing what a job Jihoon has come to when he's only twenty-six, no one can do it so quickly."

"But you're the CEO's PA and you're the same age as him."

"That's different, I'm a secretary, it's different than Jihoon's job. I didn't go to university, I did a course for two years and then I started working in the company as COO secretary, but only because I had a recommendation letter, then he became the CEO and I'm still working for him."

"Even so, he..." Mingyu began to speak.

"I don't think you understand exactly the magnitude of the situation," Soonyoung stopped him by raising his hand. "Right now there are about ten people supervising Jihoon, those are all his bosses, it's a hierarchy. Right now he's provisional so he doesn't have that much power, but when they give Jihoon the job he'll be the company's chief operating officer." Wonwoo opened his eyes, surprised to hear that.  

"Wait, wait, that's the job they're going to give Jihoon?"

"Many of our associates are waiting for someone else in that position, but most of the company's internal bosses want him."

"What does that mean?" asked Mingyu in disbelief.

"Operations manager is the COO, the second in command of the company, he will be one step away from being the CEO. And I don't really see him that far away because Mr. Kang is really old."

"Why are they giving him such an important position?"

"Because the people on the leadership committee right now don't complete the field that Jihoon specializes in, so they started looking for candidates. I told Jihoon to apply because I thought they could give him a chance, he thought it was silly but he applied anyway. I was at the meeting where they decided exactly who they wanted, after that the interviews were just a formality, and to make sure everything on the resume was true. Jihoon was the only person who was not ten years away from retirement, who had experience in much lower positions, and who was part of a minority."

"Is that why they chose him?"

"The fact that he's part of a minority is just one of the requirements, because they know he will be the face of the company, it wouldn't matter if it was any other lower position but he will be at the head of the company and it can be a very good look for us," Soonyoung calmly explained. "They've made and average on how much the company's income would change if Jihoon was one of the representatives, and the profit is huge, they're thinking about opening more offices in Europe and the United States. Because we have a CEO who appeals to the conservative public and the other representative of the company will appeal to everybody else," everyone was quiet when they heard everything Soonyoung just said, who looked at them for a moment before speaking again. "So are you going to let Jihoon get the job or not?" he asked raising an eyebrow, it didn't seem like he was giving them much choice, but they all nodded without saying anything else "Great, because it won't be long before all the paperwork is done and made official, so don't fuck it up at the last minute and don't even think about putting pressure on him or telling him that what he's doing is wrong, we already know how it went last time," he finished talking and then looked at Mingyu, because the fact that he didn't support Jihoon on this exact promotion was the reason their relationship ended. 

 

"Well, now that that's over, where's Jihoon? He asked me to come and get him, but he doesn't answer my texts," Soonyoung looked at him with a frown. 

"Did he ask you to come and get him?" Seungcheol nodded slowly. "That's weird."

"Yes, I know."

"He should be in his office."

Soonyoung rose from his seat and left the office to go to Jihoon's office, the others followed quickly. They reached his office and it seemed that no one was there, yet Soonyoung opened the glass door and entered slowly. 

"Jihoon?" he asked cautiously.

Seungcheol walked inside the office and realized that they couldn't see him because his head was resting on his desk and the computer screen was covering him. He approached his desk and could see his head down with his eyes closed as he took a deep breath. 

"He's asleep," Seungcheol whispered, warning the others. "Jihoon, wake up, come on," he leaned forward and shook him a bit to wake him up. 

He frowned when he realized something and moved his hand up to his forehead, lifting his head slightly. 

"He's burning," the three were surprised to hear Seungcheol say that, he knelt in front of Jihoon to try to wake him. "Jihoon, wake up," he said as he lifted him from his desk. 

Jihoon opened his eyes slightly but closed them again, leaning back on his seat. 

"No, don't fall asleep, come on, open your eyes," he opened them again to look at Seungcheol, who leaned forward and took him by the hand. "Do you feel bad?" Jihoon said nothing and just nodded slowly. "Okay, let's go home, can you walk?" Jihoon repeated the action without much strength, Seungcheol stood up and helped Jihoon up.

"Shall we help you carry him?" Mingyu asked, looking at Jihoon. "No, don't worry." Seungcheol replied with a slight smile, holding Jihoon by the waist tightly so that he wouldn't fall, though it seemed he could walk. 

Wonwoo opened the door of the office to let them pass, they started for the elevator but they ran into a man, Seungcheol lifted his head and thought he looked familiar. 

"Is there something wrong?" asked the confused gentleman as he saw Seungcheol there. 

"Sir, Jihoon is not feeling well so he called Seungcheol to come and get him." Soonyoung quickly replied, approaching him. 

"All right, then you take care of these papers," he said, handing Soonyoung some papers that he was probably going to give to Jihoon. ""Don't let him come back until he gets better, Jihoon has a bad habit of working in all circumstances." the man said before pressing the elevator button for them. 

"Don't worry." Seungcheol muttered, bowing his head. 

They all entered the elevator and there was a moment of silence before Soonyoung spoke when the doors closed.

"That's Mr. Kang, the CEO of the company." Seungcheol nodded and realized that he looked familiar because probably he'd already seen him at the conference he attended. He was about to say something but he fell silent when Jihoon leaned on him, closing his eyes. 

"Don't you want to take him to a hospital?" Mingyu asked when he saw Jihoon's condition. 

"No, Jihoon doesn't like hospitals," he answered calmly, trying to get his hair out of his face. "It's all right, Jihoon doesn't have great health and this happened quite a lot when we were together, so I had to come and get him sometimes to bring him home."

Mingyu frowned confused at the thought, he had never been called to work because Jihoon wasn't feeling well. Soonyoung said goodbye to them at the door and Seungcheol took Jihoon to his car, he sat him in the passenger seat, put his belt on him and then closed the door, he turned to look at Mingyu and Wonwoo, who both seemed worried. 

"Don't worry, he'll be as good as new in a few days, it's not the first time it's happened to him," he said with a smile and then said goodbye to them and got into the car. 

He started driving home, the car was silent as Jihoon was very sleepy. Seungcheol stretched out one hand and put it on his forehead, his fever wasn't going down. 

"Do we have medicine at home or do you want me to stop by a pharmacy?"

"There's some at home." Jihoon whispered and breathed a tired sigh. 

He put his hands on his cheeks, trying to cool himself, but it didn't work for him because then he put his forehead on the window, trying to feel a little cold. 

"Don't do that, your head is going to hurt," Seungcheol warned him, grabbing Jihoon by the shoulder and pulling him away from the window. 

Jihoon grabbed Seungcheol's hand with both hands, he looked at it for a moment before bringing it closer to his face and putting it against his cheek, probably because Seungcheol had cold hands as it was winter. Jihoon leaned back on his seat and closed his eyes, Seungcheol left his hand there and after a while he moved it to his other cheek and then to his forehead.

Soon they came home and Seungcheol realized that Jihoon had fallen asleep, so he parked the car and got out of the car to go open Jihoon's door. He took him out of the car and lifted him bridal style to walk to the elevator. 

It had been a long time since he had been with Jihoon so he didn't know how long it had been since the last time he felt so unwell. He hoped it wasn't a regular thing and that he didn't feel that stressed out because of his job. 

He walked to Jihoon's room and laid him down on the bed, he then took his shoes off. Jihoon moved and opened his eyes, complaining slightly. 

"Hey, get up a bit, you have to change." Seungcheol murmured as he approached his face and grabbed his arms to help him up. 

Jihoon got carried away like a puppet and took off his jacket. Seungcheol crouched in front of him and began to undo the tie, then began to unbutton the shirt. Jihoon sat there, his shoulders slightly drooping as he waited for Seungcheol to finish undressing him. He took off his shirt and made him raise his arms to put a shirt on him. 

Jihoon moved his hands awkwardly and unbuttoned his pants then slid them down his legs and threw them aside. Seungcheol lifted the covers and made him lie down to tuck him in, he stroked his arm and approached his face. 

"Do you want something to eat or do you want to sleep?"

"I want to sleep." Jihoon whispered, closing his eyes. 

"All right, rest." Seungcheol muttered as he ran one hand through his hair and then got up and left the room so that he could sleep peacefully.


	10. Chapter 10

Seungcheol decided to stay at home and take care of Jihoon, because he knew that if he was in that condition he wouldn't get up to prepare something to eat. So he called in sick fr work too and let him sleep in. But when noon arrived he decided that it would be best to wake Jihoon up so he could eat something.

He prepared something, placed it on a tray and then entered Jihoon's room and turned on the light. Jihoon was stretched out, occupying the entire bed as usual. He placed the tray on the desk and leaned forward to shake him slightly so he would wake up.

"Jihoon, wake up, you have to eat something," Jihoon just complained and turned his back on Seungcheol. "Come on Jihoon, get up." he said, turning him around to look at him.

Jihoon opened his eyes slightly and looked at Seungcheol.

"Jihoon you have to eat, you can't sleep all day, you'll get worse." Jihoon didn't say anything and just closed his eyes to turn around again. "Come on Jihoon, get up for a moment you have to eat something."

Jihoon didn't turn around, but he raised one hand and placed it on Seungcheol's face.

"Shut off." he muttered as poked at his face with his entire hand, as if he were really looking for a button to turn him off.

Seungcheol laughed and raised his hand to move Jihoon's hand away.

"No, we're not fighting, come on, get up." he grabbed his arm and helped him up a bit, he placed the tray with the plate on his lap, but Jihoon didn't seem to have the strength to grab the spoon.

Seungcheol sighed and grabbed it, he brought it closer to his lips and Jihoon opened his mouth.

"You can't forget about these things, you're very ill." Seungcheol muttered as he gave him another spoonful, Jihoon simply made a sound of understanding.

"I'm sleepy."

"I know, finish eating, take the pill and then you can sleep, okay?" Jihoon nodded and took the spoon from Seungcheol's hands to continue eating.

Seungcheol got up from the edge of the bed and left the room to get the tablets and a glass of water. When he entered the room again Jihoon had almost finished eating, he sat on the edge of the bed and waited for him to finish before taking out the plate and leaving it on the bedside table.

"Here." Jihoon swallowed the pill and left the glass next to the plate.

Seungcheol got up to leave the room, but Jihoon stopped him and grabbed his arm.

"What is it?" he asked confused.

Jihoon said nothing and simply pulled him closer, Seungcheol didn't understand what he wanted so he just went with the flow. Jihoon pulled him forward and made him lie next to him, he guided Seungcheol's hand so that he would cuddle him. Seungcheol understood what he wanted so he laid down next to him and hugged him closer, Jihoon hid his head in Seungcheol's chest and breathed a sigh of relief as he felt Seungcheol's arms wrapped around him. Seungcheol closed his eyes and raised his hand to caress his hair slowly, the two soon fell deeply asleep.

Seungcheol woke up only when he heard the doorbell, he got up slowly, trying not to wake Jihoon up in the process. He yawned and ran a hand over his face to wake up a little before opening the door, not surprised to see Soonyoung on the other side.

"Why haven't you used your key?"

"I forgot it at home," he shrugged. "How is Jihoon?"

"He's sleeping."

The two walked to the living room and sat on the sofa.

"Don't you have work?"

"I didn't go, I have to take care of Jihoon." he explained as they both sat on the sofa.

"I didn't think you'd take care of him, I came to make sure he wasn't half dead or something."

"Why did you think that?"

"Because you're not together anymore."

"That doesn't mean I don't care about Jihoon." he replied with a smile.

"Can I ask you a question?" Seungcheol nodded slowly when he heard that, "Why did you leave? Really, because Jihoon told me about the fight you had, but it didn't seem to me reason enough to give up your relationship, much less now that I've seen what a great couple you were."

"I needed a break from all that, it wasn't just fights, there were other things that weren't ging well between us." Seungcheol muttered calmly and Soonyoung looked at him confused.

"What do you mean?"

"When we graduated we isolated ourselves completely without wanting to. The company that Jihoon was working for was on the outskirts of the city so our apartment was far from where all our friends lived, eventually we stopped going out with them. That's why we lost contact with Jeonghan. We never went to see our families because Jihoon was working like crazy and I had interviews all the time. Jihoon didn't like the company he was working for, he hated his job, he came home always in a bad mood."

"And why did he stay?"

"Because he's Jihoon, he knows that what's harder now will be easier later, and it was, with time they moved him to the main quad, where he is now. But it was worse because then he had to work even harder and I saw that the improvement wasn't that great, he still didn't like his job. It really sucked, he didn't like his job and I couldn't get one. But we were fine."

"You were fine?" Soonyoung asked skeptically.

"Yes, we had fights from time to time, but I don't remember it as such a bad time. I think it would have been much worse if we hadn't been together. It's true that sex would make us forget about the fights, but in reality we were still together because we loved each other, we didn't feel like we *had* to be together or anything like that. We were really good together, we only had each other."

"And why did you leave him?" Seungcheol sighed at that.

"I needed a break from all that. It wasn't about Jihoon, it wasn't really about him. It was more about the atmosphere, I wanted to change, I wanted to look for another alternative and be alone for a while. It went well for me, I was quite well when I left, Jihoon on the other hand..." he muttered, leaving the phrase in the air and then slowly shaking his head.

"What do you mean?"

"It wasn't a good time to leave. Jihoon was about to get a promotion, but he had a trial period and spent a lt of hours in the office."

"Like now?"

"Worse. Sometimes he would stay the whole night there."

"And that's why you left?"

"I left because I felt like I was a burden to him and because I wanted to clear my head a little. But he felt so bad."

"Right, you fought and you never talked again." Soonyoung nodded.

"Huh? No, that wasn't the last time we talked." Seungcheol said confused to hear what Soonyoung just said.

"Really? Jihoon told me you didn't speak again until now."

"Well, we didn't see each other again after that. But Jihoon called me, *a lot*," he explained calmly. "During the first week after the breakup he called me every night, a lot. He'd get drunk and call me, leave me a bunch of voice mail."

"And what did you say to him?"

"I ignored his calls," Seungcheol sighed. "I'm not proud of it, but I was really hurt and I wanted to be alone for a while to clear myself. I knew I couldn't accept his calls if it hurt me so much to hear his voice mails."

"Jihoon hasn't told me anything about this."

"Probably because he's not proud of it. Jihoon hides his feelings very well and doesn't want anyone to know that he is sad or that he needs someone."

"And why was it different with you?"

"Because we loved each other," he explained calmly. "Jihoon was completely devastated, you could tell by his messages. I was too, he had a hard time getting over it."

"And he just stopped calling you?"

"No, one day I picked up his call," he paused as if he wanted to remember what they said to each other. "I thought I could talk to him in a civilized way, it had been a while since the break up. But he hadn't gotten over it, he asked me to come home and he said he needed me. I told him that I loved him but that I needed to be alone for a while, I couldn't continue in that house, I felt like a burden to him and I was sad all the time because I couldn't find a job. He told me that he would never stop loving me and that he would wait for me until I was ready to come back."

"And what happened? Why didn't you come back?"

"I guess he stopped loving me." Seungcheol muttered, shrugging.

Jihoon frowned and pulled his hand away from the doorknob of his  bedroom door when he heard what Seungcheol had just said. He didn't want to remember anything of what he'd suffered when Seungcheol left him, but he felt bad that Seungcheol deserved to have suffered in the same way he did.

He felt weird, he didn't understand what exactly did he want, he was happy to know that Seungcheol didn't have a hard time after the break up, but somehow he felt bad that he suffered so much when Seungcheol didn't.

He approached his bed and huddled between the sheets to go back to sleep, but his thoughts clouded him and he didn't understand why he started to cry. The two still loved each other, Jihoon was sure of it. But he had his reasons for not getting back together Seungcheol. And they were pretty good reasons.

Finally he fell asleep again and woke up a few hours later when the sun was no longer in the sky and hardly any light entered his room. He got out of bed and ran a hand through his hair, he felt much better than before, he needed that rest. But he was starving so he went out and walked slowly to the kitchen, where Seungcheol was cooking while listening to music.

"Hey, you woke up, how are you feeling?" he asked, looking at him with a smile as he turned off the music.

"Much better." he said calmly as he sat at the table.

"Do you want to eat?"

"Yes, I'm hungry." Seungcheol nodded and turned to start serving him some food.

"Soonyoung came earlier, but you were too sleepy so I didn't want to wake you up."

"It's all right."

"Here." Seungcheol put the plate in front of him, Jihoon grabbed it and then walked to the living room.

He sat down on the sofa and turned on the TV to start eating while he looked at it absently.

"Don't you want to eat with me?" Seungcheol asked from the kitchen.

"No." Seungcheol burst out laughing and went to sit next to him on the sofa to eat with him.

They dined in silence as they watched the program that Jihoon had put on. When they had finished dinner they put the dishes on the table and Jihoon took out his cell phone to distract himself for a while.

He raised his head with a frown when he saw that Seungcheol had changed channels.

"Hey, I was watching that!" he exclaimed, grabbing the remote from his hands.

"You were looking at your phone, plus, you know I don't like that show."

"But I do, and I turned on the TV first." Seungcheol took the remote again.

"You're not even looking at it!"

"But you don't even like to watch TV!"

The two began to fight for the remote and finally when Jihoon had it he turned off the TV immediately.

"That's it, nothing for either of us."

Seungcheol rolled his eyes and sighed despite a slight smile on his face, he got up from the sofa.

"Do you want to do something? I was going to make dessert."

"No." answered Jihoon emphatically as he looked at his phone.

"Are you sure? If you help me prepare it, I'll let you eat some." he said with a smile, leaning on the back of the sofa to look at him.

"I don't want to eat anything." Jihoon muttered in a bad mood.

"All right, if you don't mind I'll put on some music." Jihoon just shrugged without taking his eyes off his cell phone.

He heard Seungcheol approaching his laptop and playing a song, Jihoon had to suppress a smile when he heard the first few seconds of the song, he could recognize it instantly. He stopped smiling and settled on the couch to continue looking at his phone. They had seen the movie a few days ago, but it had been so many years since he'd listened to the song alone, which was silly because they used to listen the soundtrack of that movie almost all the time. Mamma mia was their mom's favorite movie, so both had been forced to watch it too many times, to the point that they ended up liking it too. When they were together at college Jihoon used to play the songs because it was what bothered Chanyeol the most and Seungcheol followed him, so the two ended up singing a Mamma Mia song at the top of their lungs while Chanyeol complained and tried to cover the sound with headphones or pillows.

Seungcheol put his hands on Jihoon's shoulders just when the first verse of the song "Mamma mia" was heard, it wasn't Jihoon's favorite, but definitely Seungcheol's and he knew it. Jihoon couldn't help but laugh when he heard Seungcheol's voice sing a few verses. He surrendered and let himself be carried away by Seungcheol's hands making him move to the sound of the music. He blocked his mobile and grabbed Seungcheol's hand when he offered it to him, he gasped surprised when Seungcheol dragged him out of the couch and then made him stand on top of it. But Jihoon was so used to singing that song with Seungcheol that it didn't take him long to raise the hand that was still holding his phone and use it as an imaginary microphone as they both sang the song dramatically. It had been a long time since Jihoon had been carried away like that and he couldn't stop laughing every time there was a pause in the verses of the song.

It was only when the song was finished that Jihoon realized what those verses really meant and why Seungcheol had chosen that song when it wasn't even Jihoon's favorite. The smile on his face as he watched Seungcheol slowly faded away and only his rapid breaths could be heard. He was completely silent for a moment without taking his eyes off Seungcheol's eyes, they were too close and he really didn't know what to do.

The two were completely distracted when the doorbell rang.

"I'll go," Jihoon exclaimed jumping out of the couch to go open the front door. "Thank God Soonyoung..." he began to speak just as he opened the door but Soonyoung wasn't the person that was waiting at the other side of the door.

"Hello," he heard that familiar voice with a smile.

"Mom?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes i listen to mamma mia while writing this story.


	11. Chapter 11

"Mom, what are you doing here?" Jihoon asked in complete confusion.

"I wanted to see you!" she exclaimed, approaching him to give him a big hug, Jihoon reciprocated and grabbed her suitcase to let her in. "Besides, how can I not be here when they're going to give my son such a big promotion?" she spoke with a smile and then squeezed his nose.

She walked inside the house as if it were her own and Jihoon closed the door behind her to follow her quickly.

"Oh Seungcheol, we meet at last," she approached Seungcheol to give him a hug, "I couldn't believe it when Jihoon called to tell me you were back together. I was never really convinced with Mingyu." Seungcheol looked at Jihoon with a raised eyebrow and Jihoon simply shrugged.

"How long are you going to stay, Mom?" Jihoon asked suddenly.

"Just a few days," she replied with a smile. "I'm not bothering, right?"

"No, not at all. We'll just be working all day." Seungcheol replied.

"Don't worry, I haven't been to Seoul in a long time, I could use a little sightseeing. You have the extra room, I thought it was silly to go to a hotel and I wanted to surprise you" Jihoon opened his eyes in surprise and looked at Seungcheol "Something wrong?" she asked when she saw the look they both shared.

"No, nothing, it's just that Seungcheol keeps some of his things in that room. But it's all right, we'll clean it up and it's all yours." Jihoon replied with a smile as he carried his mother's suitcase into Seungcheol's room.

The two of them went in there and Seungcheol began to tidy up quickly.

"You told your mom we're back together?"

"I was afraid the company would call her, okay? I assumed it was a bad choice when I heard how excited she was with the news."

"Well, at least I finally met her in person." Jihoon rolled his eyes as he saw the broad smile on Seungcheol's face.

"Yeah well, don't say anything silly, she can't find out that this is all a farce, it'll tear her apart."

"I know, she adores me."

"Congratulations," answered Jihoon sarcastically, he rolled his eyes, and left the room. "Have you had dinner, Mom?"

"Yes, I've already eaten something, but I'm tired, I hate travelling. I think I'm going to take a shower and go to sleep if you don't mind." "No problem, go rest." Seungcheol said to her with a smile before she entered her room.

"No problem, go rest," Jihoon repeated mockingly, he rolled his eyes and walked to the kitchen.

It irritated him that Seungcheol was so perfect, now that they weren't together he realised how annoying it was. He understood why everyone hated that they were the perfect couple, it was all thanks to Seungcheol. He was the typical boyfriend who had eyes only for Jihoon, who cared about getting along with his family, he even talked to Jihoon's mother on the phone on weekends.

Seungcheol entered the kitchen right after him.

"Are you feeling better?"

"Yes," Jihoon replied reluctantly. "I'm gonna go to work tomorrow."

"What? No, you can't go to work, it's only been two days. You were very ill."

"So? I'm fine now."

"Jihoon, rest, even if it's just for another day."

"I'm not going to stay at home tomorrow, Mom's going to force me to show her the city and if I tell her I'm sick, she's going to stay at home taking care of me."

"Is that so bad?"

"After you took care of me, yes, I think I've had enough."

"You're not going to work." Seungcheol spoke angrily, it sounded more like an order.

"I'm not staying at home," replied Jihoon emphatically. "I'm feeling better, and I'm not going to stay at home so my mother can take care of me, and I don't want to go out."

"Then you come with me."

"You have a job."

"Yeah, you can see the uni again, say hi to your teachers." Seungcheol replied, approaching the fridge to start preparing the dessert he'd promised Jihoon.

"I'm not going with you, you're going to have classes, what do you expect me to do? Walk around the corridors until you finish?"

"No, you go into class with me and wait for me to finish."

"Sit with a bunch of kids? No, thank you."

"You were in that position a few years ago, it hasn't been ten years since we graduated, don't exaggerate," Seungcheol laughed as he took out a few tablespoons of ice cream. "Besides, nobody will find it weird, sometimes there are teachers in my class. I'm the head teacher of a few subjects so teachers from the seminars have to come to see what I'm teaching."

Jihoon sighed loudly, frustrated, and threw his head back.

"I'm going to take that as a yes," said Seungcheol turning to look at him with a smile. "Now take out the silverware and I'll finish preparing this."

Jihoon spent fifteen minutes sitting at the table with a scowl on his face as he ate the dessert Seungcheol had prepared. He wasn't going to tell him it was good, and he wasn't going to ask him if it was one of his mother's recipes. So half an hour later both of them were changing to go to bed because Jihoon was still tired even though he'd slept all day, and he would probably have to stop thinking about how much that whole situation reminded him of when they were together.

He got into bed and turned around, he heard Seungcheol get into the other side of the bed as well. They'd decided it would be a better idea if they slept together because otherwise their mother would notice that something was wrong. He turned around and covered himself with the bed sheets, he'd never slept with his back to Seungcheol, they didn't do that, it wasn't natural for them. They always slept cuddling with each other, even if it was summer, they were used to it.

So he wasn't too surprised to wake up spooning with him, and Jihoon was not exactly the little spoon, so it was obvious that it had been Jihoon who moved during the night.

"Mmmh... I think I'm going to have to ask your mother to stay a little bit longer." Seungcheol muttered when the two woke up because of the alarm and noticed Jihoon's arm around his waist and his head leaning against his back.

Jihoon complained about just waking up and tried to get away from Seungcheol, but Seungcheol moved his hand and grabbed Jihoon's arm so he wouldn't get away.

"Don't tell me this isn't your fault."

"It's your fault if you don't let me get up. Jihoon muttered, half-asleep frown.

Seungcheol turned so that he could look at him.

"Are you feeling better?" Jihoon simply nodded slowly. "You still have to come with me to work though."

Jihoon sighed and rolled his eyes and then got up from the bed.

The two changed and left the room to find Jihoon's mother cooking something.

"Good morning." she greeted them with a smile and then kissed both of them on the cheek.

They had breakfast together at the table and Seungcheol seemed too happy to finally meet Jihoon's mother in person. When they were together it was something he always reminded him of, but they never had a chance to go to Busan for Seungcheol to meet Jihoon's family. The first year seemed too hasty to them, the second was when Jihoon met Seungcheol's family, which was a complete disaster, and in the third year they were just too busy to travel.

He was never going to say it out loud, but he liked to see Seungcheol get along so well with his mother, he always had. He would have liked them to meet while they were together, it wasn't true that he was afraid of commitment, at least not in that regard. But Seungcheol had always had that idea of Jihoon, just because he was quite impulsive and Jihoon was not. In his opinion, everyone was quite impulsive in comparison to him, that didn't mean he couldn't get into a stable relationship.

"Your mother is great." Seungcheol commented while they were in the car.

"There's not much to compete with, your mother called me a lot of stuff that I'm still trying to forget,"

"My mother is too overprotective, ever since I told her I'm gay she thinks everyone will take advantage of me. Don't take it to heart."

"Of course, because I look like I'm going to take advantage of you. Shouldn't it be the other way around?" Jihoon sighed and leaned his cheek on the palm of his hand and then looked out the window.

"Just because you're  _ little _ ? Your personality is another world."

" _ Little _ ? You say it as if I measured seven inches." Jihoon rolled his eyes.

"Am I wrong?" Jihoon opened his mouth immediately to protest, but closed it again when he realised what he meant.

"Ok I forgive you that one," he muttered, looking back at the window. "But don't you dare call me little again."

"You're right, _ you're not _ ." Jihoon laughed at that and rolled his eyes, causing Seungcheol to laugh as well.

Going back to college after so many years of graduating was a little weird, the place was the same, but he didn't know anyone, which felt strange because before he always had someone to greet when he was in the hallway. Their first class was a little late so they didn't have to get up very early either. Jihoon sat in the front row, because he knew that the first four rows of a main auditorium were always completely empty and he wasn't afraid the teacher would ask him something he didn't know. Mainly because he knew everything, but also because Seungcheol was unlikely to ask him anything.

He disconnected completely when the class started and looked at his phone absently, a couple of messages came from Seungkwan, asking him about some papers he'd asked for before he got sick. So he thought he could take advantage of the free time and finish it at that moment and give it to him the next day. It wasn't like he was always taking work everywhere, but when he knew he wasn't going to do anything for a few hours, it didn't hurt to bring some work with him.

He heard how all the students started talking to each other and he realised that Seungcheol told them to discuss the answer with the classmate next to them, like teachers always did.

"Unless you're taking notes from my class, you'd better keep that away." Seungcheol put his hands on Jihoon's table.

"These are notes, this is very interesting." Jihoon replied with a smile.

"Seriously Jihoon, don't work."

"Seriously, I'm not working."

"Oh really? Let me see," Seungcheol took out the papers in front of him to see what was written on them, and then he went over to his desk to leave them up there, "I'll give them back to you at the end of the class." he winked and Jihoon thought he was going to die.

He sighed and put his cheek on top of his hand, Seungcheol approached the center of the room to continue the class. Now Jihoon didn't know what to do to distract himself, he looked at the students to see if they were paying attention, obviously they were, it was third in the degree and it was a compulsory module. He frowned when he realised that all the first rows of students were filled with girls looking at Seungcheol as if they cared more about what was under his pants than macroeconomics. He laughed slightly and turned his head to look at Seungcheol again, he wasn't going to lie he looked good as a teacher teaching. If he had him as a professor when he went to college he would probably have sat in the front row every day and gone to all the extra hours pretending to have trouble understanding the subject.

After realising the small detail that Seungcheol was incredibly attractive, the class became more enjoyable. He hadn't aged a day since they had broken up, in fact, he looked more mature, that innocence he had when they were together in college had vanished. But if he was honest, the same thing had happened to him, they had to take him seriously. When before he hardly cared about what he was wearing now it was expensive suits seven days a week, and his hair had taken a long break after he had dyed it about thirty times in the four college years, now permanently black.

He remembered dyeing it shortly after he broke up with Seungcheol. Now he understood the expression of surprise on Seungcheol's face when they met again, he'd never seen him with his natural hair. But he was so busy hating it that he'd forgotten a few things. One of them was the fact that Seungcheol had gained quite a bit of weight in the last three years, it was noticeable that he was going to the gym, something that Jihoon had also begun to do and he didn't know if Seungcheol had noticed too.

"Jihoon," he shook his head when he realised Seungcheol was in front of him again. "Class is over, shall we go?""

Jihoon nodded slowly and got up from his seat to follow Seungcheol.

"I have to go get some papers before the next class." he warned him as they walked through the corridors full of students.

They left the building and walked to the one next to it, Jihoon squinted at the sun and looked at the students sitting on the grass as they talked, he remembered the number of times he laid there with Seungcheol and Jeonghan as they complained about the classes and the teachers, and he couldn't help but smile slightly.

They entered the building and took the elevator to the fourth floor, where they went to a door that Seungcheol opened for him to walk through first, it was his office.

"Wow, very organised." Jihoon murmured, looking around the rustic place, everything seemed to be made of wood, which was weird to him.

It's a little old-fashioned, nothing compared to your office. Seungcheol replied absent-mindedly as he searched for what he'd come to collect.

"It's all right, I like it." Jihoon turned and sat on the desk waiting for Seungcheol to finish.

When he finished he walked around the desk to leave a book in place and looked at Jihoon with a smile.

"Did you like the class?"

"No more than all the girls. I wanted to come by and offer them a handkerchief and have them wipe their drool."

"Really? I didn't notice, my eyes were somewhere else." Seungcheol replied with a smile as he leaned against the wall.

"Of course, the boys? There was a pretty cute one in the back row, but he didn't seem very interested in the class."

"Mmmh... No, in the first row there was a better one, although I don't think he was that interested in the class either."

"I already know everything you teach." he shrugged.

"Oh really? Then I suppose you won't mind answering a few questions." Seungcheol said with a smile, approaching him, Jihoon laughed at that.

"I'm your boyfriend, not your student, you can't..." Jihoon fell silent and opened his eyes surprised to hear what he'd just said.

"Boyfriend?" Seungcheol asked, raising his eyebrows and not erasing the smile from his lips.

"Fake boyfriend."

"We can change that whenever you want."

"You can wait all you want to, it's not happening," Seungcheol sighed and opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again, as if he was rethinking what he was going to say and wanted to change it at the last minute.

"You know I still love you, are you going to make me crawl for you?"

"Crawl all you want, we're not  getting back together." Jihoon replied with a mocking smile.

Seungcheol didn't respond and just took a step forward, putting his hands on his knees and separating his legs to stand between them. Jihoon looked up without much interest and said nothing about it, waiting to see what he was going to do.

"Don't pretend you don't want it too, I'm not going to forget the night you came back drunk, begging me to have sex." Seungcheol muttered to him, putting one of his hands on his waist.

"You said it yourself, I was drunk, I wasn't thinking."

"But you were telling the truth."

Seungcheol moved closer to him, trying to join his lips, but Jihoon put his head away to prevent that from happening.

"Kiss me again and this time it will be my fist on your face."

There was a moment of silence between them until Seungcheol cut it off as he leaned forward and instead of kissing his lips he began to leave a path of kisses around his neck. Jihoon closed his eyes instinctively and raised his hand to put it on Seungcheol's shoulder, initially to push him away, but he ended up squeezing his shoulder when he felt him suck on his skin, probably trying to leave a mark. Jihoon couldn't resist and moved his head to the side, for some stupid reason, to give him more space. Because it wasn't a lie, it was one thing to have sex, it was another thing to get back together, and Jihoon didn't want to get back together with Seungcheol, but boy did he want to have sex with him, he really wanted to.

He let the path of kisses and hickeys continue to his ear, where he bit his lobe slightly, causing Jihoon to take a slight sigh and surround his arm further by Seungcheol's shoulder. He left a kiss on his cheek and took a moment to look into his eyes, they were so close that their noses touched and his breathing was slightly accelerated. Jihoon moistened his lips unconsciously and realised that Seungcheol's eyes went from looking at his own to looking at his lips.

You could see that both were eager to kiss, and both knew how that would end. And Jihoon wanted it to go where he knew it was gonna go, but he also remembered that there can be no unattached sex when there are so many feelings involved, and he didn't want to hurt Seungcheol or himself. So he shook his head just as Seungcheol leaned forward and closed his eyes. He muttered something like he was going to be late for his next class, and then got off the table. He didn't want to look away from the floor because he didn't want to see Seungcheol's expression, because he knew that it wouldn't only be disbelief, but that there would also be sadness in his eyes. 


End file.
